Sucked down by water

[Dolby]

So with the whole Titanic 100 year memorial, I was started watching a few animations etc - and curious as the the ship sucking anything down near it while she goes down ...

Most sites are different - some saying yes and others no. Some say the ship sinks too slowly ... others say the bubbles from the ship sinking push you up ... while others say the bubbles make you 'fall' with the ship.

What sounds the closest?
Would the lifeboats have to sail far from the ship to avoid getting sucked down?
Would people near the ship, get sucked down?

 

[D3x!]

I remember a feature on mythbusters, if i recall they claim it cannot

 

[xrapidx]

Think it'd be dependant on how fast it sinks.

 

[DJ...]

It seems to be possible, even though the MythBusters couldn't recreate it under their incredibly specific conditions. I don't see how the ship couldn't create a few vortices. I highly doubt that there would be sufficiently small and densely packed air bubbles to significantly change the density of the water to such an extent. They surely wouldn't push you up though...

 

[Sinbad]

I imagine that water rushing into a hole in a ship COULD conceivably suck you into the ship... but the ship itself moving down through the water isn't going to take you down with it.

 

[zippy]

So with the whole Titanic 100 year memorial, I was started watching a few animations etc - and curious as the the ship sucking anything down near it while she goes down ...

Most sites are different - some saying yes and others no. Some say the ship sinks too slowly ... others say the bubbles from the ship sinking push you up ... while others say the bubbles make you 'fall' with the ship.

What sounds the closest?
Would the lifeboats have to sail far from the ship to avoid getting sucked down?
Would people near the ship, get sucked down?

The ship may start sinking slowly because the negative boyancy isnt that great. As it fills up, it will start sink faster as the negative boyancy increases due to the flooding increasing. It would have go to down really fast for lifeboats to get pulled in, but people already have a neutral boyancy. But only in still water. See how long you can float in a swimming pool while absolutly still and then have someone agitate the water around you and you suddenly sink. What is keeping you up is a combination of your netral boyancy and the surface tension of the water. This is broken up by agtitating the surface. This is probably what happens when the ship sinks. Also the shape of the surface changes and gravity causes you to move, which is enough break any surface tension. Add the downward current casued by water rushing into the ship and down you go.

 

[Sinbad]

Surface tension doesn't make you float. Surface tension makes anything that doesn't actually break the surface of the water float.

 

[ponder]

Well I think it's possible.

From experience when a wave breaks there could be a lot of white water which is caused by air. You cannot swim in that stuff and you sink like a rock as it is nowhere near as dense as water. Best you can do is hold your breath and wait for white stuff to dissipate, well that's what we do when surfing when there is lots of white water. You kicking and swimming helps very little.

A ship like the titanic is massive and there is a lot of air in it, if you find yourself in that stream of air bubbles you are going to sink like a rock, maybe not all the way to the bottom but far enough for you not to have enough breath for the return trip and with the panic & stuff, heart pumping you are gonna use up oxygen faster. If you are in a lifeboat I reckon you will be ok.

 

[HavocXphere]

I remember a feature on mythbusters, if i recall they claim it cannot

Kinda.

Basically if you're sitting on a concrete block and that falls into the water then it will do exactly that...fall like a rock & suck you down. Ships however aren't concrete blocks...they don't fall fast enough & the air needs to escape so it doesn't work w/ actual ships.

Source...the Mythbuster ep.

 

[chrisc]

In water at 4 deg you have the choice of drowning or freezing to death

 

[Voicy]

Well I think it's possible.

From experience when a wave breaks there could be a lot of white water which is caused by air. You cannot swim in that stuff and you sink like a rock as it is nowhere near as dense as water. Best you can do is hold your breath and wait for white stuff to dissipate, well that's what we do when surfing when there is lots of white water. You kicking and swimming helps very little.

A ship like the titanic is massive and there is a lot of air in it, if you find yourself in that stream of air bubbles you are going to sink like a rock, maybe not all the way to the bottom but far enough for you not to have enough breath for the return trip and with the panic & stuff, heart pumping you are gonna use up oxygen faster. If you are in a lifeboat I reckon you will be ok.

Exactly this. Anyone who has ever been dumped by a hollow waves knows the inner workings of physics screwing you.

 

[ponder]

Exactly this. Anyone who has ever been dumped by a hollow waves knows the inner workings of physics screwing you.

Yeah, physics can be scary at times! Scares me a lot

 

[boerseun]

Exactly this. Anyone who has ever been dumped by a hollow waves knows the inner workings of physics screwing you.

Correct, the more air that there is in the water they less water there is, hence less boyancy. Inversely, it is very difficult to sink in water that is saturated with stuff heavier than water. For instance concrete.

 

[guest2013-1]

Mythbusters did both the sinking boat as well as swimming with bubbles. The boat sinking, as per previous replies re: falling concrete block. And the swimming in bubbles. Think it was 2 separate "myths"