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Why would buoyancy decrease at greater depth?
I was watching 60Minutes about the new sport of deep water diving. The commentator stated that as the diver reaches a depth of 70 feet or so his body loses buoyancy and he can then almost free fall downward without having to paddle so hard to go in a downward direction. Why would this be so? I would think that the deeper you go the more pressure to push you upwards so therefor buoyancy would increase? What is the correlation of depth to buoyancy? I do know that salt water makes things more buoyant but Im not sure if his comment had any reference to this altho it was in the ocean.
1 Answer
- 8 years agoFavorite Answer
Hi Scott,
I watched too - you must have caught the part where his lungs inflated to size of watermellons, but at depth, the outer pressure compressed them to the size of oranges - that is your answer.
The human body is denser than water, but we have air in our lungs taking up volume, as we go down in depth, the air is compressed, becoming denser, displacing less water, until ultimately, we sink.
Hope that helps!
