The Barometer and Us

How interesting it has been for me to learn that barometric pressure may affect how people, and perhaps animals, feel. When the pressure is high, at 29.92 inches of mercury (sea level pressure) or higher, we seem to feel at our best.

Barometer in a Kindergarten class
A teacher of kindergarten-age children was curious about the children’s behavior in regard to barometric pressure. She bought a large barometer and brought it into her classroom. The children enjoyed looking at it. The instrument verified the teacher’s observation that a lower barometric pressure had an unsettling effect on the children’s behavior. The teacher, at such times, channeled the restless behavior of the children into a physical activity. The children especially enjoyed marching around the room, while the teacher played her piano. Sometimes they carried and waved small flags.

Higher altitudes and lower pressure
As we reach higher altitudes, a barometer will confirm the lower pressure. One year, when my husband and I reached the highway that leads into the Adirondack Mountains, I said, “George, I’m getting sleepy, and I think it’s because of the higher altitude and its lower barometric pressure. My husband said, “My opinion is that when we get to this certain place in our trip, you expect to get sleepy, and so, you do!”

A Barometer joins our travel
In order to determine, as I believed , that the effect on me was caused by a change in pressure, I bought an inexpensive barometer. Before starting off on our trip to the mountains, I checked the pressure at our home. It was 29.89.
After an hour’s drive, a hill appeared for us to ascend. The highway now brought us higher, and into the mountains. I checked the barometer. The pressure had begun to fall. As the pressure became lower, I began to feel sleepy.

Barometric Pressure in Airplanes
Occasionally, I flew to visit my family in Indiana. Once an off-duty pilot, still in his uniform, was traveling on the plane. I had been curious about the cabin pressure of airplanes. I asked the pilot if he knew what pressure the airline maintained inside the plane’s cabin. He said, “Sea-level pressure, “29.92.”

A Pilot’s experiment with a lower barometric pressure
A friend told me that, years back, a pilot she knew, on a transatlantic flight, had lowered the cabin pressure in the plane. In the lower pressure, the passengers went to sleep and slept the whole way.
The pilot said that at the end of the flight, a number of passengers told him how “pleasant” the trip had been, ”and how short, it seemed!” “After the lesson of that trip,” the pilot said, “I have kept the cabin pressure at sea level!”

Weather forecasters and Barometric Pressure
As a guide to weather trends, meteorologists include in their forecasts on television and radio, the current barometric pressure. The pressure readings alert the audience to changes in the weather.

I have a small device in my home that shows me the current barometric pressure. My bodily system, on its own, knows when the pressure lowers, and, without words, informs me of that condition. ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ
December, 2005; Revised March, 2006