What happens when you try to have your coffee at 2000m?

[bigred177]

So we were discussing hydrostatic pressure in one of my classes the other day and my teacher pulls out this amazing example of how incredible amounts of pressure can still be non damaging.

This is a standard size Styrofoam coffee cup that was submerged 2000m into the ocean. He was on an oceanography cruise and they allowed him to attach this cup in a bag to one of the chains lowering some equipment. I found it pretty amazing.

 

[sea2summit]

You call that non-damaging? If I ever come up from a dive like that my wife would kill me.

 

[bigred177]

Ha, yes this is true. I guess by non damaging I mean that the cup is still proportional for the most part. that one flat part on the side in the first picture is due to an irregularity in the foam.

 

[Rick Inman]

StarBucks charges $5.00 for a mocha that size.

 

[maged_mmh]

You call that non-damaging? If I ever come up from a dive like that my wife would kill me.

 

[dive_lover88]

ooo thats interesting. Compression of styrofoam.

You call that non-damaging? If I ever come up from a dive like that my wife would kill me.

I believe she would :lol: :rofl:

 

[don Francisco]

So that's how they make styrofoam demi-tasse cups. I never knew. Now I know why Starbucks charges so much for a plain espresso.

 

[Doc]

Cool pix... and Starbucks indeed!

To an extent, you can demonstrate this with your open water divers. I'll tie off a small slice of foam pool toy noodles at depth.

If you check back in a few days, you'll see that it has compressed. Returning it to the surface has no effect in its now compressed shape.

I learned this at CoCoView while trying to place floating path markers above the anchor chain that connects the resort to the wreck. The fat yellow ones I put in 35fsw contracted into shrunken clumps.

In the sixties, Jaques Cousteau was showing us this styrofoam cup parlor trick as we sat agog watching his mini sub explore the depths.

 

[Guba]

And the truly amazing part is that MOST of that compression took place relatively close to the surface (within the first few hundred feet, anyway). At least my students are usually surprised by that.