system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does water get “stuck” in your ear?

I know this may seem like a stupid question but how are we able to go underwater without the same “stuck” feeling occurring?
gpt
The “stuck” feeling generally occurs when we get a pocket of water sitting in our ear canal that’s being held there by surface tension. In other words, there’s a layer of water that’s bonded together and acting as a “wall” that prevents the other water from escaping. This often happens when we quickly exit a larger body of water or quickly tip our head and the outflow of liquid gets bottlenecked someplace. When we manage to break that surface tension, we feel the water flow out our ear.

When we’re in a pool, water is more or less hanging out in our ears, and our entire head stabilizes to the underwater pressure. There can’t be a “wall” formed by surface tension, because there’s no air in the ear canal for it to wall off water from.