Sunday, August 16, 2009
My son the hydronaut
Josh and his friend Tom Paul decided they wanted a little more underwater breathing ability than normal snorkels would provide. They got a garden hose, cut it into two lengths, and put both ends through the bottom of a cubical styrofoam container. They put some ballast into the foam box to make sure it would right itself, then put a Confederate flag on top and christened it the CSS Research Vessel Nathan Bedford Forrest. The experiment didn't quite work, because it was hard to get enough air through 25ft of tube once you were a few feet underwater, but research will continue.
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2 comments:
If he wants to be near 1 ATM down (33'), he might as well get over it and take some SCUBA lessons. I'm PADI certified and the basic course covers daytime dives down to 60'. The advanced course covers down to 100' (130' in emergencies) and I think covers drift dives and night dives.
It'll get harder to get enough air at depth because he'll be trying to suck down air from normal pressure to about 1.7 or 1.8 ATM pressure, which means he'll need to suck in twice as much mass of air to fill his lungs.
A SCUBA tank will contain a lot of air, but even it lasts shorter and shorter times the deeper you go because you breathe in and out a greater mass of air.
And he should remember that early underwater breathing systems started like this, but the exploration was not terribly safe, unlike most modern SCUBA for sport.
The most recent rumor I've heard is that he's taking Intro Scuba as a class this semester.
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