Can you sink by blowing up your BC below 40m?

[dmaziuk]

Cooled down steam is water. What is known as "cold steam", and basically visible steam, is water mist. Real steam just expands and condenses quickly. About the only way to keep it in a bucket is to weight it down with negative bubbles.

Well, lessee... what if we take water with lots of rust particles, turn it into steam, and use a magnetized bucket? I really don't like the concept of negative bubbles, it sounds too much like black holes, and those can't be good for ya.

 

[boulderjohn]

Pour yourself a Guinness draft and watch what happens. As it slowly clears and the head forms, you will see most bubbles rising to the surface, but you will also see some bubbles sinking toward the bottom. This could easily lead an observer to think there is such a thing as negative bubbles. (Yes, this does happen, and there is a reason for it, at least in theory.)

 

[Schwob]

If you think about this to hard and do so below 40m the cavitation bubbles forming due to your brain spinning too fast are negative and when those implode as all cavitation bubbles do steam would get released out your ears, but if you dont't want your eardrums blown outward to allow that you will have to sink deeper to counteract that steam pressure. Only way out is to not have your brain spinning...
...
or watch that Guinness...

 

[claymore]

I hope every one remembers to let the male end of electrical cords hang down after use so that the electricity runs out. It helps prevent a shocking experience.

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

Deep water brain cavitation. A new term!! Go deeper. Get narked. Problem goes away. Interesting thinking. Jajaja

 

[rmssetc]

Interesting theoretical question. Its a LOT more than 40 meters, and may not exist in the ocean, but I expect that there is a theoretical depth at which to generate enough pressure the air would have to be condensed so much that it would weigh more than an equal amount of water. The air might have to be some sort of compressed molecular (atomic ?) fluid. Maybe if you were deep diving on air on Saturn or Jupiter? Of course no equipment we know could deliver that type of pressure but just as a physics question it is amusing.

That's clearly a question for What-If XKCD...and I'd love to see the answer.

 

[KeithG]

40m? Depends...Do you have your AOW? That may prevent sinking.

 

[KevinNM]

If you blow up your bcd below 40 meters you probably will sink. But it depends on how much explosives you employ and whether the charge is above you or below you. I'd suggest against any experiments.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

@Boyan I hope you realize that nobody here means to be disrespectful. Some of the answers do try to address why this statement might be thought to be true so it is a good thing you asked. Some of us are just playing with the concept for the fun of it without meaning to be disrespectful.

@boulderjohn your story reminded me of a talk we attended by a Marine biologist who was studying the fish that lives in the anus of the sea cucumber. People had arguing about it's existence for years.

This guy got a grant to try to prove it one way or the other. He spent a significant amount of time taking photos of the south end of seacucumbers travelling north and their excrement. Finally he saw a fish come out! More funding to get a picture to prove it.

Next question... (more funding) How did the fish get IN there? Turns out the seacucumber has an aspirating anus... Yup it breathes through it's butt. Turns out the fish just waits till the sea cucumber needs to breath and swims back in there.

 

[KeithG]

ha ha ha. This thread has been funny - for those peeps that know. But for the great unwashed?

This is on the basic forum. The answer is no.