Question

About 80 years ago, the first bathysphere was being tested, something dramatic happened when it pulled back to the surface. Evidently, a tiny leak had allowed it to fill with water, under great pressure (I don't know how deep they lowered it, but it was probably pretty far).

Here is a link to a description of what happened. https://sites.google.com/site/cwilliambeebe/Home/bathysphere

My question is: was this caused by compressed air alone, or did the water de-compressing also play a role?

Answer 1

the water has the capability to put so much pressure on it that it could cause breaking or cracks, when u go so deep in the water ur putting more and more water over top of you and thats putting more stress on it.

Answer 2

Ashlynn1996: thank you for the reply. Let's think about that for a minute. If you have a 2-litre plastic soft drink bottle, fill it with water, and poke a hole at the bottom, the water shoots out for several inches. If you poke a hole near the top, it doesn't shoot out nearly so far. The difference is caused by the greater weight of water down at the bottom of the drink bottle. The pressure is greater down there, and it's even greater down at the bottom of the deep end of a swimmng pool. (About twice atmospheric pressure down there, if it's ten meters deep.)

Now, let's suppose we dive down ten meters and take a plastic bottle with us, fill it with water at that depth, makng sure no air is left in the bottle, screw the top back on tightly, and come back up with it.

What will happen when we unscrew the lid? Will water whoosh out, under 2 atmospheres of pressure?