Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Norfolk, VA
Posts: 4731

If you fell off of a boat in the middle of the ocean, and through some mishap just happened to have a heavy weight tied to your foot (say, an anchor)...

Which would kill you first: drowning, pressure, or freezing?

So far as I can tell from google, here's the facts:

-in water you would fall towards the bottom at around 4m/s^2
-add one atmosphere every four meters or so
-average person could hold his or her breath for about 2 minutes
-crush depth for the human body (roughly estimated) would be at about 2000 meters, based on the deepest unsaturated dive on record

So, while you're descending with this anchor tied to your foot, I think you would drown before you were crushed.

Unless you were Sabine, in which case you would be intercepted and eaten by giant squid after about 30 seconds.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35763

quote:

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Originally posted by squee
If you fell off of a boat in the middle of the ocean, and through some mishap just happened to have a heavy weight tied to your foot (say, an anchor)...

Which would kill you first: drowning, pressure, or freezing?

So far as I can tell from google, here's the facts:

-in water you would fall towards the bottom at around 4m/s^2
-add one atmosphere every four meters or so
-average person could hold his or her breath for about 2 minutes
-crush depth for the human body (roughly estimated) would be at about 2000 meters, based on the deepest unsaturated dive on record

So, while you're descending with this anchor tied to your foot, I think you would drown before you were crushed.

Unless you were Sabine, in which case you would be intercepted and eaten by giant squid after about 30 seconds.

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Registered: Feb 2004
Location: canada
Posts: 17138

this also assumes that you are perfectly calm during this this whole ordeal. most if not all people would be scared shitless and screaming, there by reducing the ammount of oxigen their body holds, dead within a minute with your lungs full of water

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Norfolk, VA
Posts: 4731

quite right, smug, I knew I was forgetting something.
You're so genteel. Class pernt for you.

All of the above holds true, unless you are Sabine, in which case, you get the tentacles.

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location:
Posts: 18340

given the certainty of death, I'd inhale immediately.

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Registered: Dec 2002
Location:
Posts: 2573

Id hold out in case those guys on the probability drive swung by.

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Registered: Feb 2004
Location: in colorado somewhere!
Posts: 26508

I will pray to the almighty and believe he will save me.
Then I will go home.

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FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING FUCK FUCKER EEEEEEEEEEE!!!

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Dumbfucksville!
Posts: 12164

I know who could tell us: Laci Peterson!

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Registered: Apr 2003
Location: I cant say I buy this completely,
Posts: 2542

Class point for the Laci joke.

Anyways, when youre under a few atmospheres the actual oxygen in your lungs contracts...this is why if you are ever making a quick ascent you have to constantly hum(slowly exhale), to ensure that you dont burst parts of your lungs(if youre using SCUBA gear). Your body uses oxygen(matabolizes it, producing CO2) while you hold your breath but at depth the surrounding water pressure effectively increases the oxygen pressure in your lungs and blood(though not its amount, just pressure). Thus you can hold your breath for longer periods because CO2 buildup is what causes the feeling you get when you hold your breath for a bit...air hunger...not the loss of oxygen...so the rise in oxygen pressures will most likely offset the CO2 buildup resulting in you not really noticing the need to breath until you experience hypoxia, pass out and drown to death.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 25268

quote:

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Originally posted by Mugtoe
given the certainty of death, I'd inhale immediately.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 25268

Personally, I would wax muskratesque and gnaw my leg off to free myself, but with my luck I would probably chew that sucker off and still have one chained to the anchor.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 15056

Been causing unrest amongst your crew mates again, Squee?

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Norfolk, VA
Posts: 4731

We have arguments like this all the time.

Once we had an argument on the smoke deck about whether or not you would survive to reach the screws if you fell overboard while the ship was at flank speed...after bouncing off 500-odd feet of barnacle-encrusted hull and floating past several man-sized pump apertures which would have a chance to suck you in and chew you up.

We gave it 50/50 odds that you would survive long enough to be chopped into four or five pieces by the screws.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: atlanta
Posts: 6453

quote:

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Originally posted by squee

-average person could hold his or her breath for about 2 minutes

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Registered: Jun 2001
Location: Charlotte, NC
Posts: 1006

quote:

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Originally posted by squee
We have arguments like this all the time.

Once we had an argument on the smoke deck about whether or not you would survive to reach the screws if you fell overboard while the ship was at flank speed...after bouncing off 500-odd feet of barnacle-encrusted hull and floating past several man-sized pump apertures which would have a chance to suck you in and chew you up.

We gave it 50/50 odds that you would survive long enough to be chopped into four or five pieces by the screws.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: denv3r
Posts: 5131

quote:

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Originally posted by Astro74
While being on watch we would more or less would talk about sports, if we really needed an officer alive if we took the boat over, and getting laid when we pulled into port.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 1163

quote:

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Originally posted by squee
So far as I can tell from google, here's the facts:

-add one atmosphere every four meters or so

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Registered: Mar 2002
Location: Mountains
Posts: 4715

"At around 75 to 90m the chest walls begin to collapse due to the pressure. Then they start taking in fluid from around them, basically blood, to fill the little cavity that is left."
It's as though Tanya is reliving the experience. "Past 90m I'm no longer able to equalise, it's just continuous pain.
"Once you go through all that and hit 113m you can suffer similar symptoms to narcosis. The descent rate of more than 2m per second, coupled with the rate of exchange of gases, means that you can get narked quite easily. I feel dizzy and my eyesight starts going."

Madness.

"By 'eaten' you mean..?"

My best tentacle dreams always mean it in the very best way.

It's the sharks that I have the problem with, squee.

Sharks and zombies.

and dairy.

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: here stupid!
Posts: 1907

Squee, why wonder..... have you been out dumping bodies?
its almost like why people mistake Elephants sex-organs for Elephants feet
the answer there is as simple an answer as to your query "they step on you, youre fucked" just like being tied down with something heavy in a pond

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 25268

I think this all begs the deeper question of: If your scrotum was securely stapled to the side of a burning barn and you were armed with nothing but a rusty pair of round-nosed kindergarten scissors, what would you do? Await certain immolation or snip-snip (or in this case gnaw-gnaw)?

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: Shreveport, LA
Posts: 3840

ooo-kay.
it would really depend on what the heavy weight is tied on with. if it was ordinary rope, i'd pull out the pocket knife i hadly ever go anywhere without and cut that shit loose. if it was steel cable or chain or somesuch....the drowning would get me, most likely. mainly because i'd just take a deep fucking breath.
been there, done that, cpr hurts, no longer afraid of it.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 25268

If it was you, it would be a chain and it would be attached to your neck.

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Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Oceanside, CA
Posts: 5178

quote:

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Originally posted by Trenchant_Troll
If it was you, it would be a chain and it would be attached to your neck.

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Shouldn't that be "if it were you..."? Subjunctive mood, and all that?
If you're going to make ominous threats, do them correctly, man!

/troll for "pedantic" points

EDIT: I'm wrong. According to Wikipedia, if one uses "if", one can correctly use "was" or "were", as TT did above, at least in common English.

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Last edited by Talarohk on 12-13-2004 at 10:41 PM

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