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On a flight descent, your ears pop — the Eustachian tube just equalized pressure. The middle ear is an air pocket behind the eardrum: as cabin pressure rises, the drum bulges inward until the Eustachian tube (nose-to-ear channel) opens with a swallow — pop, pressure equalized. The ossicle chain (malleus-incus-stapes — the body's smallest bones) amplifies sound ~22× from drum to cochlea, where hair cells translate vibration into nerve signals. The pop is plumbing — pressure physics in a tiny air room.