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From: barb@oliven.UUCP (Barbara Jernigan)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: human reaction to vacuum
Message-ID: <466@oliven.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Dec-85 16:31:30 EST
Article-I.D.: oliven.466
Posted: Wed Dec 18 16:31:30 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Dec-85 09:09:10 EST
References: <631@hou2a.UUCP> <341@tilt.FUN> <627@wjh12.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Olivetti ATC; Cupertino, Ca
Lines: 13

>Charlie Martin:
>    People make rapid ascents of 33 feet in water every day: 
>    SCUBA divers do it all the time.  If they have not been
>    down long enough to get a lot of extra dissolved N_2, they
>    don't even particularly notice, much less explode.

*IF* they exhale continuously.  If holding their breath, their bodies,
admittedly, would not explode, but their lungs would be hash.  And there's
also a risk of blowing out the eardrums in rapid ascent/decompression -- I've
felt that warning pain, myself. (By the way, *I* *do* particularly notice the 
pressure change of 33 ft to surface -- more so going rapidly the other way.)

Barb