Why does air pressure difference make us have airplane ears during a flight, if airliners are pressurized?
In: Physics
Airplanes are pressurized so the cabin environment is equivalent to no more that 8,000ft of altitude, that’s still 8,000 feet to adjust for your ears.
Translate to absolute figures, on the ground level it’s 1 ATM, up at cruising altitude of around 33,000 feet, it’s 0.2-0.3 ATM outside and 0.8 ATM inside, the ears have to vent out 20% of air during climb and take in 20% air during descent. If your ears can’t adjust quick enough, pressure builds up on your eardrums and it hurts.
Better materials like carbon fiber is used in construction of newer planes, so they can be designed to take more pressure differential, they can be pressurized to the equivalent of maybe 6,000 feet of air pressure inside the cabin, this reduces fatigue for occupants and maybe less stress for your ears.
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