SOS! Any Diving Math Teachers out there?

[susan6868]

My son, age 14, has been diving with me for two years now. Recently, he was given an assignment in his advanced math course to write a paper on a topic and it's relationship to math. Although the teacher provided a pre-set list of topics, my son decided to be original and submitted the subject "Scuba and Math". He explained that there is so much math involeved in diving, there would be ample topics of interest of material to dicuss in his paper. I encouraged him, knowing his love for the sport would make otherwise mundane research not only fun but useful. The topics we thought might be pertinent to the topic were buoency, decompression, management of residual nitrogen, and the calculations used for safe diving. However, he's been having an awful time finding research information on these topics that he is able to comprehend. In addition, most articles use the table which provides demonstration of it's use but no mention of the mathmatical calculations used to derive the information contained therein.
In closing, could you suggest any websited, books, or even topics to "google" that might provide results concerned with the "mathmatics" used behind diving practices in a manner that would be comprehensable by the laymen, or at least an interested high school student? What we've been able to find it either too vague or so technical we are unable to decipher it.
Thank you for any suggestions you might offer. I thought it was a great idea at the time for him to not only be able to apply these theories but to understand them as it would benefit him in his diving adventures throughout his life, but didn't realize how difficult it would be to research the matter.
Again many thanks!

 

[scubatoys]

Here's a little info, over on my web page I wrote some stuff to help divemaster and instructor candidates get through their gas law exams...

Start here: http://scubatoys.com/education/archimedes.asp

It will at least get to some stuff like this:


P1 x V1 P2 x V2
_______ = ________
T1 T2


and this

SAC Rate = (DCR x 33) / (Depth + 33)


He may need more... but it's a start!

 

[hess]

Hi,
Have you tried the Navy diving manual? It has some useful info and is comprehensible. Your best bet would be to figure out the math seperately to the diving. For example, if you looked up basic gas laws you could simply apply them to diving after the fact. Try wikipedia and math.com. If it were me I'd look at the rate at which the body breaks down nitrogen and CO2 and the density of these gases per breath at various depths. The math behind this should be fairly simple ratios. Dont know if thats useful but best of luck to you. cheers.
-alex

 

[my1ocean]

You/ he might be interested in the computations from a nitrox course. It deals mostly with the percentages of gasses in a mixture. Definitely high school level stuff and you can pick up study materials from your local dive shop. You don't necessarily have to take the nitrox course to go over the materials.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I would suggest picking a more specific part of diving. Some suggestions might be altitude calculations, gas mixing, mixed has use, buoyancy as you already said, gas management. Decompression is an obvious choice but the models are somewhat complex.

Some informations sources are...all kinds of diving texts from OW manuals to DM manuals, Any gas blending manual, the Navy and NOAA manuals, books like "Technical Diving in depth" and there are lots of online sources that he'll find if he narrows his search. You can even find complete explainations including source code for several decompression models on line.

Of course, it sounds like finding the sources is part of the homework.

 

[Redshift]

Nitrox and the mathematical formula to calculate the MOD would also do...

 

[2Tours N Iraq`]

I have a fairly good grasp on the mathematics involved with diving thanks to reading the US Navy Dive Manual. I have it in PDF format so PM me with your email address if you would like for me to email it to you.

 

[DementialFaith]

I'd say try the PADI encyclopedia physics section. It has some entry level math, but not that detailed as compared to research papers or online articles.

 

[alpenadiver]

IANTD's Technical Diver Encyclopedia also has a lot of formulas used in diving.

 

[timle]

If you are recreational divers something interesting and something you might be thinking about anyway is nitrox certification. There are a handful of basic algebra formula for computing the partial pressure of oxygen, your equivalent air depth (if you want to use an air table to dive), your maximum operating depth, your oxygen clock. There are tables but each of these tables have formulas behind them.

Heck just sticking to open water basics you can talk about pressure and depth. However your depth relates to how long your cylinder lasts due to increasing pressure. How to keep the same volume in our lungs each breathe contains more and more gas as we go deeper. Same effect on a BC - he could show how someone neutrally bouyant at 50 ft would be negatively bouyant at 100 ft with the same ammount of gas in the BC.

Sounds like a fun paper!