Breathing from a 30ft. snorkel

[Guba]

Me either, but it provides an interesting scenario.

Bubba is on the bottom of his pool, using his 30 foot snorkel. His best beer-drinkin' buddy Budreau paddles over on the floating lounge chair (aka, tractor inner tube), seizes the end of the snorkle and drops the family cat in...

Thuuuuump! Kitty gone... followed by an explosion of water as Bubba hits the surface like a Polaris missile, fire in his eyes as he searches for Budreau...


Hey, this is starting to look like that "ax-men" thread.

 

[costi]

No dive instructor would have you suck an over size snorkel. Nor would a flight instructor have you attempt to take off an aircraft without lifting surfaces. The instructors would (or should IMO) teach the candidate about natural dynamics.

For fun, GOOGLE, "Scuba Gas Laws, PADI."

Once again, I thought you were trolling with your initial post. But now I see you and others may not have recieved the training some of us "older" guys received.

I am surprised at the responses from some of the "experienced" divers here. Perhaps it's an indictment of the system, not you. I would not be so quick to defend your instructors for omitting these important bits of knowledge however.

I would equate that to defending my daughter's elementary school arithimetic teacher for skipping long division and handing her an HP calculator.

SplitLip: I think I just figured out something
It seems as though you are interpreting my comment that I never had "how to breathe from a snorkel at 33'- 101" in OW class, to not having had any education on gas laws. I want to assure you that I do not dive by the seat of my pants, and I have had a couple of very competent instructors to date.
Where I was lacking, which is why I posted the question, plus I thought it would make for a good discussion, was the problem solving ability to put it all together to answer the snorkel question. That doesn't mean that I don't have a basic understanding of gas laws and this doesn't make me or my instructors incompetent, (though I Did feel a little embarrassed when the answer jumped up and slapped me when Cave Diver answered the question on something like post #3.)
Anyway, this thread has turned into a good discussion on the most part. I Do sincerely hope that someone doesn't go out and try something stupid as a result of this post just to "see for themselves what would happen if..."
I apologize for any hard feelings a few of my comments may have caused.(I really don't find pleasure in the exchanges we have had)
Now, for the next question,"How long am I going to be able to remain in the water in a 7/7 wetsuit diving here in Maine Saturday?" (smile)
BC

 

[Splitlip]

SplitLip: I think I just figured out something
It seems as though you are interpreting my comment that I never had "how to breathe from a snorkel at 33'- 101" in OW class, to not having had any education on gas laws. I want to assure you that I do not dive by the seat of my pants, and I have had a couple of very competent instructors to date.
Now, for the next question,"How long am I going to be able to remain in the water in a 7/7 wetsuit diving here in Maine Saturday?" (smile)
BC

Well, we are both in the same boat. Kind of.

I did weight checks in my 3/2 and 2.5 hooded vest in preparation for my dive next weekend. It was not pretty.

I'm from Long Island via Indiana but maybe the blood does thin. I'm only gonna do a single tank dive. (sorry mm2002)

 

[Jax]

I propose a challenge! Y'all go out, procure a 1/2" inside diameter clear hose 6' long, mark the hose by feet and inches.

Stand on a chair, and hang the hose in a bucket full of water. Hose must be verticle. Suck up the water. Come back and report to us how far you were able to take it.

Ok, so I just tried this experiment.

I borrowed a balloon from my nephew.

<snipped>

My very non-scientific conclusion: If I can't inflate a balloon using my diaphragm muscles/exhaled breath from my lung at 4' of depth, then it's highly unlikely I can inflate my lungs using a snorkel at that same depth.

So, I thought the question was "could we suck in air at depth . . . How did this become . . . um, blowing up a balloon?

I thought the discussion was the lungs inflating, not exhaling.

 

[Jax]

Hey, CD, sine you have the pool and pvc handy, why don't you get in it?

 

[Andy077]

There are stories of hard hat divers being buried in their helmets before check valves were used at the helmets air hose connection point. The check valve is the one most important piece on a surface supplied diving helmet. Something would happen at the surface like the air hose bursting and and the water pressure would literally compress the divers body into the helmet.
I strongly advise anyone trying to disprove that you can't breathe through a snorkel much longer than 18 inches to not attempt to breathe through a hose or pipe at any depth deeper than a couple of feet or you may be fishing your lungs out of it.

This is pretty much basic diving physics and I am very surprised by the lack of knowledge from trained divers.

THAT was a really cool episode of mythbusters. Meat-man got all squished

 

[Jax]

THAT was a really cool episode of mythbusters. Meat-man got all squished

:yuck:

 

[costi]

Jax
It goes back to Cave Divers post at the beginning of the discussion. On post number 2, he explained that without the lungs receiving air at ambient pressure at depth, they would collapse.
With the pressure being so intense/unequal, the human body is not strong enough to reinflate the lungs at this point.
Since no one should try this at home, the balloon is being substituted. Yes, the balloon is being blown up rather than a breath being drawn in, but the principle is the same.
In essence, the original post wasn't whether or not one could "suck air through a 33' snorkel",
rather it was," How to explain Why one couldn't Breathe at 33' through a snorkel."
Hope this helps,
BC

 

[boulderjohn]

Where I was lacking, which is why I posted the question, plus I thought it would make for a good discussion, was the problem solving ability to put it all together to answer the snorkel question. That doesn't mean that I don't have a basic understanding of gas laws and this doesn't make me or my instructors incompetent, (though I Did feel a little embarrassed when the answer jumped up and slapped me when Cave Diver answered the question on something like post #3.)

I hope you are not beating yourself up over this (and I don't think you are).

The gas laws as needed for scuba and as taught for scuba do not mention the precise details of your question, and it would frankly take a pretty good deal of thought to reason it through. As a life long educator, I would have been surprised if the average person would have figured it out on his or her own. The more expected response would be to ask a question like this on a forum such as this--which is what you did.

As for the slap-on-the-head "duh"-moments we all have had, this one barely makes that category, if it does at all. It was a good question.

Congratulations for asking the question, and kudos to those who gave such well stated answers.

 

[Jax]

Jax
It goes back to Cave Divers post at the beginning of the discussion. On post number 2, he explained that without the lungs receiving air at ambient pressure at depth, they would collapse.
With the pressure being so intense/unequal, the human body is not strong enough to reinflate the lungs at this point.
Since no one should try this at home, the balloon is being substituted. Yes, the balloon is being blown up rather than a breath being drawn in, but the principle is the same.
In essence, the original post wasn't whether or not one could "suck air through a 33' snorkel",
rather it was," How to explain Why one couldn't Breathe at 33' through a snorkel."
Hope this helps,
BC

Given that the motion of the diaphram is different on the inhale and exhale, I'm thinking the strength of the inhale could be different that of an exhale.