Bill Bryson - A Short History Of Nearly Everything

[KrazyHorse]

I don't see how you can reach the conclusion that it supports Bryson's claim.

EDIT: or, more properly, Haldane's claim.

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse

squeezing his body into the helmet, and even up the air hose

a) Water is virtually incompressible. No reasonable amount of pressure will force an entire human body into the volume of the diving helmet.

I would think that only the "solid" parts of the body would be. Since an adult male is roughly 60% water, only 40% remains to be stuffed in the helmet. And organic is compressible i'm guessing. Think of a balloon full of water.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Let's assume a surface-supplied diver is at 1000 feet depth- a PSI of around 500. What effect would an explosive pressure drop have?

I can't find a record for surface-supplied diving at 1947, but the reading indicates it would be more than the SCUBA record at the same time, which was around 100 metres.

[KrazyHorse]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diving_hazards_and_precautions

A valve in the helmet failing. In severe cases much of the diver's body could be mangled and compacted inside the helmet

I don't doubt that severe physical trauma, mangling and death could result from a pressure differential of ten atmospheres. I simply know that:

a) Water, and thus most of the human body is fairly incompressible

b) The viscosity of the soft tissue in a human body would prevent it from easily being pushed through a small hose in large volumes

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by Lazarus and the Gimp
Let's assume a surface-supplied diver is at 1000 feet depth- a PSI of around 500. What effect would an explosive pressure drop have?

I can't find a record for surface-supplied diving at 1947, but the reading indicates it would be more than the SCUBA record at the same time, which was around 100 metres.

I just clicked off it, but I got 130 meters (set in 1937 by a German diver, not broken for a long while after that)

I doubt that many divers operated at that depth, so 100 meters is a reasonable guess

[OneFootInTheGrave]

makes me think that those divers are real crazy... what is the current record in some kind of suit, as in just diving?

I might just go and take a look.

[KrazyHorse]

Which type of suit?

The record for SCUBA is 330 m

The record for a "jim suit", which does not subject the occupant to external pressure (it's a rigid suit with articulated joints) is 600 m or so.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

found this quickly after a short search

http://scuba.about.com/b/a/053745.htm

but this is just "regular" dive with bottles, and 300m what about in some kind of suits?

--- fund even bigger depth and this one might be current record

http://www.divernet.com/news/stories/130705bernabe.shtml

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Which type of suit?

The record for SCUBA is 330 m

The record for a "jim suit", which does not subject the occupant to external pressure (it's a rigid suit with articulated joints) is 600 m or so.

thanks... 600m OMG! those people are crazy, any TV shows about that? Just the dark screen I guess ... this is a crazy sport. What are those dudes doing at 600m? Repairing oil & gas pipes or what?

I found this little fact file - sperm whales are crazy too as they are mammals, rather impressive. Not to mention elephant seals x10 5,187 feet... more than 1.5 km. What is the pressure there?

[KrazyHorse]

That jim suit is barely different than a submarine.

It's rigid and subjects the wearer to a far lower pressure than the external ambient.