1,000 ways to die

[GrandpaScuba]

The second thing, I thought hyperbolic chambers were ...

Not to pick nits, but... I think you mean Hyperbaric Chamber. A Hyperbolic Chamber would be a room where people tell outrageous stories.

Oh wait! That's where this story belongs!!

 

[Thalassamania]

Alright. Had to get out another envelope.

Average solubility of air in water at 1 ata and room temp: roughly 0.02 g/kg
At 9 atm, that would be an extra 0.18 g/kg
Average body mass: 70 kg
Roughly assuming 80% H2O: 10 g of air
Density of air at body temp and 1 ata: 1.1 g/L

Initial body volume: roughly 70 L
Volume increase from decompression: 9.1 L

Doesn't sound like a huge amount, but would partly depend on how fast things happened. Shock waves are funny things.

Sorry if this is getting too morbid for anyone.

You must be an engineer.

Reminds me of the time I came home to find my engineer housemate staring at a chicken. He says to me, "how long to cook this chicken?" I said, "look it up, it's a per pound thing." I went into my room and came back you a few minutes later. There he was, deep in thought, still staring at the chicken. He mumbled, "Assuming a spherical chicken ..." and proceeded to do the heat flow calculations to get the middle of a water balloon the volume of a chicken to 160 degrees F in a 350 degree oven. Needless to say the chicken would have been badly overdone.

Anyway, I think your numbers are a little high since the only gas that would come out of solution is that gas that exceeds the supersaturation ratio(s).

 

[SkipperJohn]

Not to pick nits, but... I think you mean Hyperbaric Chamber. A Hyperbolic Chamber would be a room where people tell outrageous stories.

Oh wait! That's where this story belongs!!

yeah, we've been down that road already.

Bleeb, I use my morning coffee napkins for my computations.

 

[highdesert]

No way you can open a chamber door with it pressurized. Figure the area for a circle in inches
PIE R SQUARED ( I don't have the symbols on my comp) 3.1416x 12"=37.6992

(represents the area of chamber door at DIA. 2', Which always has to open inward)
and multply times the PSI in the chamber You say 300 feet. (KISS) say 1/2 PSI per foot
that is 150 psi THAT is POUNDS PER SQUARE INCH 37.6992x150=5654LBS.That is one bad ass janitor.
See you topside! John

You can square a "pi", but you can't square a "PIE".

 

[Thalassamania]

Pie are not square ... they are round.

 

[Walter]

Cornbread are square, pie are round.

 

[Abidon]

If you square half of that round with a pi, you'll get the area.

 

[Romalar]

I ran this story by my father. He is a physician and an international lecturer on hyperbaric and dive medicine. So I would think him to be a credible authority on this subject. We discussed it and came to a consensus. Forget about debating on the direction the doors swing, the physical possibility of exploding if rapidly decompressed, and all the other stuff discussed in this post so far. Everyone is ignoring the most obvious flaw with the original story. There is no way a janitor would have even gotten close to the door. The attendant would not have allowed it and there is ALWAYS an attendant near when a patient is in a chamber.

 

[JKPAO]

Yes I agree with your pop but THIS janitor was strong and stealthy!
See you topside! John

 

[tomboyy]

I ran this story by my father. He is a physician and an international lecturer on hyperbaric and dive medicine. So I would think him to be a credible authority on this subject. We discussed it and came to a consensus. Forget about debating on the direction the doors swing, the physical possibility of exploding if rapidly decompressed, and all the other stuff discussed in this post so far. Everyone is ignoring the most obvious flaw with the original story. There is no way a janitor would have even gotten close to the door. The attendant would not have allowed it and there is ALWAYS an attendant near when a patient is in a chamber.

You and your dad are assumming that hospital policies are always followed to the letter. In a perfect world they would be ... but this isn't a perfect world. SOOOOooo ask again will someone explode?

While I'm on the topic of people exploding what do you consider an "explosion" .. does the person have to be totally in little pieces
or does maybe just a big hole in his throat or chest constitute an "explosion"

was there a sound associated with this so called explosion?

just a few things i was wondering