Why do you equilize ears when scuba diving?

Answer 1

Because otherwise the pressure in your ears can become very VERY painful. If you've ever ridden in an airplane, you have an idea what I'm talking about. As you go up, air pressure decreases, and it becomes painful on the ears. So you equalize the pressure. Now let's look at the pressures that are involved in Scuba diving. Water is MUCH heavier than air. Pressure is sometimes expressed in a measurement called "atmosphere". An atmosphere is the weight of air on one square inch. So the 80,000 foot, by one square inch column weighs about 14.5 pounds! Now it takes 80,000 feet in the atmosphere to reach that much weight, but you'll go through that in about 30 feet of water. So if you're diving at 60 feet, it's actually like being under three atmospheres, or 43.5 pounds per square inch of pressure! If your ears don't like the 1/4 atmosphere pressure change of flying, imagine how much they dislike 8 or more times!