Dumb advertisement near me had a sign up about their “sparkling pool” which got me thinking…what would it be like to swim in carbonation?

I think you would float better? Probably? Would it hurt more? Would all the released carbon dioxide in the vicinity of the pool be a problem?

  • AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    57·
    3 days ago

    As long as you can continuously get the CO2 out of the way above the surface so you don’t suffocate… you might still die.

    “Non-buoyant water” is a real thing. When water contains enough dissolved or finely dispersed gases, it becomes less dense than the human body. There will be no buoyancy force making you float, so if you stop moving you won’t just hang near the surface, you will sink to the bottom like a rock.

    Now, maybe you can still generate enough force to tread water if you really tried. Maybe the bubbles themselves getting caught under you would counteract the loss of buoyant force, but the point is that if you carbonated a pool enough, it could possibly be more of a deathtrap than a play area

    • lonefighter@sh.itjust.works
      29·
      2 days ago

      When I was a kid we went on a field trip to the sewage plant. They had massive tanks (way bigger than swimming pools) full of sewage, and they pumped in large amounts of oxygen in to aerate it all. The worker told us that if anyone fell in there was very little chance of saving them because there was way too much air in the water to float, and you would sink right to the bottom and of course the sewage made it impossible for anyone to see through to find you quickly.