How does pressurization affect a bag of chips?

Question

I just took a flight from Orlando to Milwaukee, cruising altitude 30,000. I took 2 bags of chips with me in my carry on, and I noticed while in flight the bags expanded, almost to the point of exploding.

Since the flight I have felt "out of it", dizzy and lightheaded. I'm trying to figure out if this is just from a stressful week, or something that happened with the pressure on the plane. Could it be?

Answer 1

What you are experiencing is jet lag, a condition in which your body's circadian rhythm is disrupted from traveling over different time zones. Because your body was used to the time condition in one place, going to another place rapidly that has a different time zone requires your body to adjust. This can cause dizziness, fatigue, nausea, mild depression, among other things, and as for you Rachel, it is more common in women due to estrogen being more vulnerable to jet lag-like conditions.

Jet lag can take from days up to a week to wear off, and in that time frame, can bring a person's productivity potential down to only 60%-70% of what he or she may normally due.

The bags may have expanded due to differences in pressure and heat. When pressurizing the cabin, that is quite possibly what may have caused that. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Shouldn't have eaten those two bags of chips huh?

Answer 3

When you are cruising at 30,000 feet, the cabin is not perfectly sealed. The pressure is maintained at no higher than about 10,000 feet inside the cabin by using cooled engine bleed air, but that's still a lot lower atmospheric pressure than sea level, which is why the sea level pressure sealed inside the bag fills up the bag when you are at altitude. Even at 10,000 feet, you may be affected negatively by the cabin pressure, especially if it changes quickly or if you are already suffering from a cold or a sinus congestion, which would prevent your ears from venting properly and thereby affect your sense of balance.

Answer 4

you might be anemic.

Answer 5

As an airplane climbs in altitude the pressure outside the airplane cabin decreases.  The pressure inside the airplane decreases as well but not nearly as much as the pressure outside the cabin because the airplane tries to maintain a set cabin pressure not to exceed eight to ten thousand feet.  Because the aircraft cabin pressure is less while the airplane is at cruise altitude than the air pressure on the ground where to took off from, the air in your sealed bag of chips expands.

You might have felt dizzy and out of it due to a slight touch of altitude sickness.  If you are a smoker, or not in the best physical shape, the higher altitude of the aircraft cabin in flight could affect you and make you feel out of sorts.  I doubt that a flight from Orlando to Milwaukee could cause "jet lag" since you only crossed one time zone.