Delta P Demonstration

Here's something interesting for those who've never seen what pressure differential can do. On Discovery Channel, MythBusters did an experiment to test the 'myth' that a loss of pressure at 300 fsw in a MK-V would squeeze a diver's body into the hat. Anyone who ever attended dive school knows that it isn't a myth, but to see it is something altogether different. It's such a graphic scene. They use a mannequin packed with pig guts to simulate a diver. It's litererally the most freakish sight... and the noises the body makes. GROSS!! It'll definitely make you your blood run cold.

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Permalink Reply by Dive Diva on December 25, 2009 at 3:45pm
The dimensions of a diving helmet like the one in the myth is approximately 19"H x 14 1/2"W and with it being somewhat spherical if you calculate the volume to be between the spherical (app. 1596.256 cubic inches or 0.924 cubic feet) and cubical (3994.75 cubic inches or 2.312 cubic feet) volumes to be approximately 2800 cubic inches/ 1.620 cubic feet (spherical volume plus cubical volume divided by 2) and an average person, at 175.5 pounds, occupies approximately 2.695 cubic feet*. So no matter what the divers entire body, as per the myth, could not possibly fit in the helmet anyway! Even if the helmet was cubical with the same dimensions 19 x 14.5 x 14.5 = 3994.75 cubic inches (2.312 cubic feet) the myth is busted with simple math. In order for the diver to have fit in the helmet, of the estimated 1.620 cubic feet, in a worst case scenario he would have to weigh a maximum of approximately 109.650 pounds.
Permalink Reply by Ethan on December 26, 2009 at 10:09pm
you gotta remember that most of the human body is made of liquid and squishy stuff... I think the pressure would get most if not all of the body into that hat...except for some bones
Permalink Reply by Phil Voltaire on December 26, 2009 at 1:24am
It's quite obvious that it would be literally impossible for an entire human body of average size and mass to fit into the space of a dive hat even if it didn't have any bones, but this isn't about the literal. The general effect of the difference in pressure would still rearrange your guts in grizzly fashion. The results are still the same: a brutal death. Most definitely a close casket funeral.
Permalink Reply by Dive Diva on December 26, 2009 at 3:59pm
When the hose is cut or if the compressor fails; it creates a pressure differential on the body of roughly 120 Pounds per square inch. The average human has about 3000 square inches of surface area. This results in a force of about 37,500 pounds on the body or about 18.75 Tons. Once the water pressure outside his helmet was greater than the air pressure inside, the resulting "pressure gradient force" would try to equalize those pressures..

Under such great pressure the heart would begin to fibrillate then stop, the lungs would not be able to expand to draw in air causing a pneumothorax. The diver would die in a matter of seconds from asyphixiation. Before the diver's internal organs were compromised and crammed into the helmet.
Permalink Reply by A.. Parnell on May 13, 2010 at 10:28am
Yea that will get your attention and make you want to give extra attention to your check valves before you make a dive.
Permalink Reply by Chuck Bonner on May 13, 2010 at 11:18pm
LOCK OUT TAG OUT No matter the job big or small!!!!!! Pigged a diver out of 6" pipe 14yrs ago because someone needed to open valve on other END!!
Permalink Reply by Martin Morris on May 14, 2010 at 10:47am
I think that everyone doing the calculation to see if a divers body can be sucked up into the dive hat forgot one thing. THE HOSE. If the hose is cut it will fill up too.
Permalink Reply by Guillermo Gray on May 14, 2010 at 7:41am

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