Reply to Tourist submersible missing on visit to Titanic

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I can’t stop thinking about this but what does implosion mean? I’m trying to visualize this and the pressure? What does it do to the sub and human body? Is it like a plane explosion mid air?[/quote]

It is the opposite of explosion. In an explosion, an source on the inside of a structure (usually an ignition) drives everything catastrophically out. In an implosion, a pressure source on the outside of a structure (here, water pressure) drives everything catastrophically in.

The end result of both, to the human body, is pulverization.

This is why having a vessel that could withstand water pressure of this intensity was such a high priority, and why having failed to assure that was such a glaring mistake. Almost suicidally in error.[/quote]
Does that mean the body of the submersible could still be intact, albeit crumpled together? I’m imaging the Capri Sub example from earlier. Or even if the body imploded, it still shattered into millions of pieces?[/quote]

At that depth, given the water pressure and the fact that different parts of any structure failed at ever so slightly different times, no it could not be intact and crumpled (such that you could pump it up again from within like a Capri Sun pouch). One part failing slightly before the other will also produce shear forces that tear the external structure.

The Capri Sun pouch, to continue that example, doesn’t fail at all—you could keep re-inflating and deflating it almost indefinitely. That is not because it’s indestructible but because the relative forces at work—strength of the pouch as a unitary whole, your ability to produce suction, and air pressure from the outside—just aren’t mismatched enough.

That deep in the ocean, the default is that forces are mismatched. The water pressure is just too formidable to be brushed off the way this guy decided to brush it off. It’s inexplicably stupid. [/quote]

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