• Question: Why do you feel dizzy when you spin?

    Asked by drewpeacock to Alan, Murray, Sarah on 25 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 25 Mar 2011:

      Strangely enough it is all to do with your ears…

      You have a mechanism in your ear that makes you balance, so when you spin the mechanism becomes disoriented and causes you to loose balance and become dizzy. Inside your ears, you have three semicircular canals that are at right angles to one another. These canals have hair-like sensory nerve cells, but they also contain a fluid. When you tip your head from side to side, the movement of the fluid is detected by the hairs and this is how your brain knows where your head is at! When you spin, the fluid gets spun too, no wonder it makes you dizzy!!

      This is why when you have an ear infection is can affect your balance and make you dizzy too.

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