Question

You are now wearing scuba gear and swimming under water at a depth of 66.0 ft. You are breathing air at 3.00 atm and your lung volume is 10.0 L. Your scuba gauge indicates that your air supply is low so, to conserve air, you make a terrible and fatal mistake: you hold your breath while you surface. What happens to your lungs

Answer 1

Answer: See explanation below for answer.

Explanation:

Using Boyle's law, we have:

V1 = 66

V2 = 10

P1 = 3

P2 = ?

P1V1 = P2V2

3 X 66 = x X 10

198 = 10x

x = 19.8

From the calculations, we can see that there is an increase in pressure, this would make the lungs expand.

As one goes up towards the surface, the pressure on the body and lungs becomes less and the air in the lungs will expand. The effect of this is that the alveoli and small capillaries in the lungs would rupture, causing massive bleeding in the lungs.