Diving into carbonated water is physically possible. We bet that the sensation of all the bubbles rising up your body would be a little ticklish, but ultimately not that unpleasant.

But let's get down to the serious stuff.

If we can immerse ourselves in carbonated water, can we swim in it? To answer this existential question, we need to ask Archimedes.

Theoretically, swimming in carbonated water is entirely possible... as long as the carbon dioxide (CO2) remains dissolved.

This means that the gas remains invisibly mixed with the water, like sugar or salt, which disappear when mixed with water.

In this particular case, everything is fine: sparkling water behaves like ordinary water (except for the small tickling bubbles).

What happens when the gas is released and is no longer dissolved? Then the data changes completely.

The magazine Ça m'intéresse illustrates these changes with a simple calculation based on one liter of carbonated water containing about 6 grams of dissolved CO2.

If only 2 grams per liter are released in the form of bubbles, in an undissolved state, the water becomes a mixture consisting of 50% liquid and 50% gas.

The density becomes half that of normal water!

And then? Then "everything changes," as Master Yoda would say. Here enters Archimedes of Syracuse, a Greek scientist from the 3rd century BC, and his famous law.

According to this principle, any body immersed in a fluid is subjected to an upward vertical force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid.

A principle that explains why we float in water! Applied to our calculation above, it also explains why we would sink in carbonated water.

In such a mixture of bubbles, Archimedes' force would also be reduced by half.

As a result, buoyancy would be halved and the body would sink almost immediately.

Even a top-level athlete such as Leon Marchand or Michael Phelps would have enormous difficulty staying afloat in such conditions.

This phenomenon may even be the reason for the sudden disappearance of ships in history that sank while passing over a place where there was a sudden release of fossil methane from the ocean floor. | BGNES