eli5: Why do our ears pop when we change altitude? And if it’s pressure, why do they do it in pressurised plane cabins?
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Airplane cabins are not fully pressurised, they are only partially pressurised. The pressure difference between the inside and outside of the cabin causes stress in the airframe and the bigger the pressure difference the more stress and therefore the shorter lifespan of the airframe. So airliners want to keep the pressure inside the cabin as low as possible to reduce the wear on their airframes and only pressurise them to the legal minimum pressure. So you will typically have a pressure inside the cabin equivalent to around 3000 m altitude. The airplane will go three times as high but the pressure inside the cabin will stay at this altitude.
This means that when ascending in an airplane your body will feel a pressure change as if you were climbing to 3000 m in just a few minutes. And when descending you will be descending the same 3000 m in a short time as well.
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