eli5 why do people get carsick/seasick?
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Your body uses 3 distinct systems for balance because bi-pedal locomotion and balance is quite difficult. The systems are vision, inner ear, and sensory nerves.
On a boat you see long stretches of horizon that are stable and unmoving, however your inner ear and sensory nerves report motion, especially as you feel yourself rise and fall with the waves. The feedback your brain is getting is incompatible with each other and one possible reaction is nausea. This is theorized to have been a selected evolutionary trait as certain toxins can create similar sensations and through vomiting your body could expel the toxins before more is absorbed.
A similar thing happens in reverse with VR or car sickness. You see movement and motion, but your inner ear and sensory nerves report nothing is moving, or at least not in the same way that your vision is reporting.
More information on the balance system can be found here [https://www.kansashealthsystem.com/news-room/blog/0001/01/the-balance-system](https://www.kansashealthsystem.com/news-room/blog/0001/01/the-balance-system)
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