Physics of Scuba Diving
The physics behind SCUBA diving and the physical effects on the body.
Scuba diving is a sport that many people enjoy but hardly understand the physics behind. The journey from the pressure of the atmosphere to the deeper depths of the seas is not just a trip that involves breathing air out of a tank and looking at fish. If we were to go on an imaginary journey beginning at the surface and traveling to the bottom of a 300 foot lake your body would under go a change in pressure nearly of 10 times. The physics behind diving starts is with the initial change in pressure on your body, and progresses to taking your first breath underwater, to you body being saturated with gasses and finally at great depths the very oxygen that keeps you alive begins to poison you. The very beginning of a journey to the depths begins at the change from the surface to the water. At the most basic and simple level the first thing that happens when you change over from air to water is the rate in which you change pressure. The density of water is almost 800 times that of air. So when an altitude change of a couple hundred feet in air is almost negligible, a change of a couple feet in water is very drastic. To double the pressure in air one would have to come down from 18,000 feet to sea level. To double the pressure in water one only has to go down 33 feet from the surface. According to the ideal gas law, doubling the pressure means halving the volume. So any breath taken at 33 feet, one is taking on twice as many gas molecules as one would take on at the surface. This is not a problem as long as the pressure is the same. To take a breath at the surface and go to 33 feet the volume of gas in your lungs would be halved. Upon returning to the surface the volume would increase to original volume. People do this safely everyday in swimming pools, take a breath go under pressure and come back. The other way is not true at all. To take a breath at a depth greater than a
Scuba diving is a sport that many people enjoy but hardly understand the physics behind. The journey from the pressure of the atmosphere to the deeper depths of the seas is not just a trip that involves breathing air out of a tank and looking at fish. If we were to go on an imaginary journey beginning at the surface and traveling to the bottom of a 300 foot lake your body would under go a change in pressure nearly of 10 times. The physics behind diving starts is with the initial change in pressure on your body, and progresses to taking your first breath underwater, to you body being saturated with gasses and finally at great depths the very oxygen that keeps you alive begins to poison you. The very beginning of a journey to the depths begins at the change from the surface to the water. At the most basic and simple level the first thing that happens when you change over from air to water is the rate in which you change pressure. The density of water is almost 800 times that of air. So when an altitude change of a couple hundred feet in air is almost negligible, a change of a couple feet in water is very drastic. To double the pressure in air one would have to come down from 18,000 feet to sea level. To double the pressure in water one only has to go down 33 feet from the surface. According to the ideal gas law, doubling the pressure means halving the volume. So any breath taken at 33 feet, one is taking on twice as many gas molecules as one would take on at the surface. This is not a problem as long as the pressure is the same. To take a breath at the surface and go to 33 feet the volume of gas in your lungs would be halved. Upon returning to the surface the volume would increase to original volume. People do this safely everyday in swimming pools, take a breath go under pressure and come back. The other way is not true at all. To take a breath at a depth greater than a