The human lungs can function satisfactorily up to a limit where the pressure difference between the outside and inside of the lungs is 1/20 of an atmosphere. If a diver uses a snorkel for breathing, how far below the water can she swim? Assume the diver is in salt water whose density is 1025 kg/m3.

Answer 1

didn't I respond to this earlier? What did you not understand on that?

Answer 2

Actually I did not understand why and how did you calculate the wight.

Answer 3

weight of the water column=density*gravityforce*height*area
gravity force=9.8N/kg
density=mass/volume
area is area of a mythical column 1m x 1m, height is water above where you want to measure pressure.

then pressure is weight/area, so
pressure= density*9.8*height (in N/m^2 or Pascals)
set that equal to 1/20 th of normal atmospheric pressure (101.3 kPa), solve for h.

Answer 4

Thanks a lot