On Tue, 1 May 2001, Alberto Monteiro wrote:
>
> J. van Baardwijk wrote:
>
> >2. Once James is under water, the water will slow him down. At how many
> >meters below the surface will his speed reach 0.00 m/s?
> >
> Again, not enough data - but he would probably sink forever. AFAIK, the
> density of a living human being is bigger than the density of water.
It depends on the person, actually. Last I got in enough water to tell, I
was less dense than the water. I took a swim class in college where a few
of the students (mostly guys) were dense enough that when they tried to
float, they'd sink like rocks. I, on the other hand, had a hard time
getting very far below the surface without either carefully falling into
the pool (think a diving position getting in) or deflating my lungs (which
wouldn't let me function quite as long underwater).
I have no idea what my density is now, but, let's see, there's some extra
fat (which is less dense than water) between my knees and where my waist
used to be, extra something-or-other in my breasts (and they float in the
bathtub), and then there's all that stuff going on in my uterus. Some of
it is amniotic fluid, which has a density very close to water (being
mostly water), and I don't know about the fetus or the placenta. There
may be some extra muscle mass built up in my legs from dragging more mass
up the stairs all the time (2-story house). There's the extra fluid I'm
retaining, which is probably close to the density of water. There's extra
blood in my system, but I'm not sure how much, and that is denser than
water. Anyone care to guess how my density is compared to what it was
last August, before this wiggly little thing currently in my belly was
created?
Julia
