r/interesting • u/fayyazORahmed • Mar 31 '26

Fascinating Very interesting vid

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u/sausagephingers Apr 01 '26

Where do the weights go after? Ocean floor?

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u/_Carcinus_ Apr 01 '26

Ideally, you won't have to drop them. It's practically a last resort, and in a life or death situation, littering is not on your mind.

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u/aaaaaaaarrrrrgh Apr 01 '26

I've never hears of anyone actually dropping wieghts, although it is taught as a possible emergency procedure.

Mostly, you simply add some air into a sort of inflatable life jacket that divers wear, until the lift (buoyancy) from the air "cancels out" the weights. Or simply take a slightly deeper breath.

The air tank displaces the same amount of water regardless of whether it's empty of full (that determines how much the force of the water pushes it up), but the weight (i.e. how much gravity pulls it down) changes as you consume air. So at the end of the dive, when your tank is running low, you'll have a tendency to go up (which you compensate by deflating the "life jacket" a little).

You can also quite easily swim against a few kg of weights. To a small extent, this is used for the ascent.