Question

(II) In a movie, Tarzan evades his captors by hiding underwater for many minutes while breathing through a long, thin reed. Assuming the maximum pressure difference his lungs can manage and still breathe is –85 mm-Hg, calculate the deepest he could have been.

Short answer

The deepest he could have been underwater was 1.15m below the surface.

Step-by-step solution

Step-1: Difference in pressure

The change in pressure of a substance is influenced by the variation in depth and the density of the substance.

 Given the data

The maximum depth is calculated as;

Here Δ h is the change in depth, ρ is the density of water and g is the acceleration due to gravity.

Substitute the values in the above relation.

The maximum depth up to which he could go underwater is 1.15m below the surface.