Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for December 20, 2016

Calvin, how about we make you inhale some pepper, plug up all the holes on your head and see what happens?

No Calvin. Sneezes don’t work that way. Try a hiccup.

Whatever you do, don’t pull that finger.

Dad seems to be perplexed ??

The first one is the right answer, Calvin.

Actually the question is a very valid one.

Of course your head would not explode, as the pressure is way too low for that. Part of the air will leave through your tear ducts (yes, it will blow right out of your eye and you will feel it on your eyeball). But due to the very small diameter, the flow of air will be very limited.

Another part of the air will travel through the Eustachian tubes and into the inner ears, giving you the inflated sensation that you feel when climbing rapidly in a plane. (And opposite to what you feel when diving rapidly into water.)

But the air has no way to escape through that route because the eardrum seals the inner ear form the middle ear. So if you sneeze too hard, you may actually tear one or both eardrums; That will severely affect your ability to hear, but I understand that the eardrum will frequently heal completely in a few days. (I may be wrong about that, though).

So no, the question was not a silly one at all.

>>Interesting – do you also know if it is true that the reason we close our eyes when we sneeze is because otherwise, we could sneeze our eyeballs out?

Mythbusters did a program about that some years ago, and ended up debunking it and just making a big mess.

After bypass surgery, I always prayed – “OK, a cough I can handle, but please please PLEASE don’t let me sneeze!”

Your eyeballs might fly out

I cracked a rib doing it. Not recommended.

Wonder the same thing myself

What’s wrong with a biology/physics question?

Time it just right and you can blow a hole in your skivvies.

His brains would squirt out his ears.

If you belch, sneeze, and fart simultaneously you explode!

I hear it would give you a ear infection

It’s been a while since I had a link to a related strip, so here you go!

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1988/10/23

It’s still an innocent enough of a question, Dad.

Dad, That is a Math question.

Pressure Formula is used to calculate pressure, force, area, density, height and gravity if some of these quantities are given. Pressure is expressed in Pascal (Pa).

I suspect the Ears would go before the head, but then I’m not a Math whiz.

There is the theory that the Neanderthals went extinct because they tried to hold in their Sneezes.

Hey, I found it on the Internet so it must be true!

http://nottionalgeographic.blogspot.com/2008/05/gesundheit-power-of-sneeze.html

Don’t do it, Calvin. Very bad for your sinuses, including a chance of permanent damage.

LeadingEdge:

Out along the edges

Always where I burn to be

The further on the edge

The hotter the intensity

Highway to the danger zone

Gonna take you

Right into the danger zone

with compliments to Kenny Loggins

Be afraid…be very afraid…

Mustard gas? I had a scare once. I was on a clean up job at some apartment complex. My boss had us cleaning tub shower combos with Clorox toilet bowl cleaner. (Don’t knock it, it works.) This shower, though, had some kind of black gunk all over it. When I covered it in toilet bowl cleaner, it made the whole bathroom hard to breathe in, and what I think was some kind of mold turned orange. We got out right quick, and I don’t think my then boss ever contracted to clean there again.

The plugs would shoot out.

Sometimes when I sneeze my ears pop.

xxx

Don’t hold it in! No Calvin!

Still the best!