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?
Alright, so based on the table in this wikipedia article, you reach peak CO2 at freezing and it drops off from there. If you’re aiming for a crisp McDonalds Coke type of carbonation, you’re gonna want to keep that tub below 10 C.
The issue then would be recharging the water with CO2 as it naturally comes out of solution and goes out to further our collective heat death. You’re going to want to get a commercial carbonating system. That’s gonna run you about $600 per this random website I pulled off DDG. . I see no reason to think that the off gassing rate would be faster than what a normal bar soda gun could replace. If you’re in a pinch, you could probably replace all of this section with a constant supply of dry ice, which would also help keep the water from warming up due to your presence.
The final issue that you’re going to run into is survivability. Most tubs have a pretty extensive rims above the waterline. Since CO2 is heavier than air and it’s cooler than ambient air, making it even less buoyant, it’s gonna pool above the water surface, leaving an invisible cloud of immediate death. For a small pool, you’d probably be okay with just a normal box fan angled down to blow against the surface of the water.
It should be doable, but it’s not exactly the easiest or safest thing in the world. It do prolly tickle tho.
Thanks for the extensive dive in to that!
I’m also reminded that large bodies of water sometimes out-gas significantly from underwater vents, volcanoes and such, and that can evidently be disastrous for ships moving on the surface. It’s a highly plausible theory for a number of historic ships rapidly sinking, from what I understand.
No worries, I love weird mental exercises like that. If you’re into that sort of thing, you should check out What If? By Randall Munroe. Excellent couple of books.
IIRC he does a counterpart vblog series. I’ve watched a couple, but definitely needed a big mug of coffee to keep up!
Yes! It’s essentially an entire book based off that concept!