when we are underwater, how does water not get inside our bodies through our eyes, ears, nose and every other orifice?
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The eyes don’t really have any openings for water to enter the body. Even the pupil is covered by a transparent cornea, it isn’t just a hole into the eye itself.
Ears end in an eardrum that blocks the entire ear canal. If that is ruptured then there is a Eustachian tube that leads to the back of the throat.
The mouth can close, but the nose relies on the pharyngeal flap to block off access to the throat. The nose and sinuses could fill with water at the correct angle but not pass that barrier.
As for the other end, the anus is a sphincter which is a ring of muscle that closes off to prevent anything moving in or out. There are similar smaller sphincters in the bladder and the prostate to manage the flow of liquid in either direction.
Almost every orifice closes tightly enough that water (at least at surface-pressure) can’t get in.
The only one that doesn’t close is the nose. Inexperienced swimmers will sometimes manually hold their noses while underwater. Experienced swimmers can squeeze their diaphragms (lung muscles) to create just enough air pressure to counterbalance the water pressure.
Basically most orifices aren’t just open holes, except mouth and nose. The pressure of holding air in our lungs is what keeps the water from flowing in. When we eventually have to breathe the air out, that’s when the water gets in, I mean when it does that’s why we drown.
As a girl, water absolutely gets up in there when I swim. The butthole is naturally squeezed shut. Ears have the eardrum blocking the way inside. Eyes aren’t holes.
Trying to ELI5…
One side:
We are water tight, since we spend the first 9-10 months of our lives in a fluid.
We have built in systems that prevent water to go where it not supposed to.
– Eyes, the ball itself is close, the socket is a closed space
– Ear, it is closed, the eardrum is a physical barrier, if it bursts the inner ear is a closed system the only way the water could go is your throat to the “pressure equlaizer tube” – i don’t know the proper name
– mouth, your lung is closed to solids and liquids by reflex in your throat… But even your lungs are a closed space (as for the stomach, more of that later)
– “rear end” xD, there are 2 sphincter muscles, one is voluntarily controlled the other is not. it is closed most of the time.
Other side:
It may be hard for you to believe, but from your mout to your rear end, those spaces are actually outside of your body. Phsically on the inner side, but inside your body
Humans are a tube, the outside is the skin, the inside is the digestive tract (plus lung) the human itself is the tube wall itself.
There is nothing directly goes inside you, when you eat or drink, it is broken down to base elements/nutrients and they are diffused trough the stomach wall and the small intestines.
In fact, if your stomach or colon ruptures that could lead a serious infection or death because of the gut bacteria there. They are beneficial, they help you break down food for a small percentage take and you are actually needing them. But if they are not in your gut, that evolved to host them, they would kill you
Oh boy i read that as how does water not get into your boobies and i was thinking how would it
It depends on what you mean by inside.
It is like putting a cup underwater upside down full of air. With your ears if you turn sideways with the ear hole pointing up the air bubble will come out and water will come in until it hits your eardrum. If you dive head down you are going to get water in your nose, but you can easily replace the bubble in your nose by blowing air out of your nose.
Water pressure compresses the air and shrinks the air bubbles like your farts and the bubble in your nose and even the air in your lungs. In your body, the further down you go, your air will eventually smush to nothing and will come in. Have you tried swimming down more than about 3 meters? you will feel the pain in your eardrums and the force of the water trying to go into your lungs is harder.
I read: when we wear underwear… Like OP is wearing his knickers in the bath to stop water from going up his bottom.
Have you ever jumped off a high bridge into water?
If you don’t cross your ankles you get a high pressure enema squirted up your ass, feels like your guts have been ripped out.
Damnation, it hurts so fucking bad.
Physicist here. One time in our course of biophysics they told us they told us that the molecules that form our skin tissue are incredibly smart, in the sense that as soon as water touches the surface of the skin, what is a little underneath reacts to it. And fills our skin pores with natural oils that are hydrophobic, so watee doesn’t get into our skin
Eyes: aren’t exactly open. The skin around them connects to the eyeball and the entire space is filled with tear fluid (mostly water)
Ears: water gets in the canal, but then gets stopped by the eardrum
Nose: water can get up the nose if you tilt your head back and it’s really uncomfortable, functions similarly to when your nose is stuffy from a cold for example
Everything else: being held closed either by muscular force or just pressure from your skin
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