eli5: If sneezing is meant to clear your nose, why do we often expel that air through our mouths instead of the nose and make noise (ex- ACHOO)?
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The air *is* still going through your nose for the most part. But some still goes out through your mouth to not blow stuff into your eustachian tubes towards your ears. Try to do a fake “sneeze” with your mouth closed and tongue fully against the roof of your mouth, and you’ll feel that pressure. When you sneeze, your tongue mostly blocks the air by touching your palate, while letting some go through in the center. This makes much of the flow go up through your nose, while still allowing some of that pressure to be released though the mouth. That tongue and mouth shape is the same we make when saying a ‘ch’ sound, so that’s why it ends up sounding like ‘achoo’.
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