Diving Physics & Physiology

 

Diving imposes two major variables on the human body - the effects of immersion and the need to breathe gas in an environment with increased hydrostatic pressure.

 

The implications of immersion are largely related to the redistribution of fluid and changes in spacial and gravitational orientation.

 

The implication of breathing compressed gas at elevated ambient pressure brings with it a need for breathing equipment (with its own implications and limitations), the effects of breathing the constituent gases within the breathing mixture at elevated partial pressures, and the collective effects of increased breathing gas density on the external and internal breathing processes.

 

Diving Physics and Physiology is largely a study of the laws and principles that describe these phenomena for the purpose of understanding their causes, managing their effects and preventing their potential complications.

 

This presentation lays the foundational principles for this.