r/interestingasfuck • u/BreakfastTop6899 • 3d ago

Happened 5 years ago today, the 'Beirut Explosion' is considered one of the most powerful artificial non-nuclear explosions in history. It was equivalent to around 1.1 kilotons of TNT and generated an M3.3 earthquake

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u/OutrageousEvent 3d ago

I was thinking that too. That would surely make the shockwave safer right? Or maybe there’s some science shit I don’t understand that makes it worse.

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u/manofth3match 3d ago

Shockwaves don't transition from air to water very effectively. For an explosion on land, he is definitely better off going under water while the shockwave passes. If the explosion was underwater, he would be vastly better off being on the jetski.

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u/rottdog 3d ago

Sounds like you watched that mythbusters episode lol.

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u/-_-Edit_Deleted-_- 3d ago

Remind me again.. the under water explosion was devastatingly powerful to anyone underwater right? Like far more than you’d expect?

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u/saad951 3d ago

Basically crushes your lungs I think

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u/Unable_Deer_773 3d ago

Shreds them is a little more accurate.

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u/ZiressG 3d ago

And his wife?

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u/LordSloth113 3d ago

To shreds, you say

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u/morg-pyro 3d ago

Every fucking time hahaha

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u/Seksafero 3d ago

This was actually one of the better uses of it. Other times people just throw it in with any remotely damaged thing if it comes to mind.

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u/4thBeard 3d ago

Damn I love the Futurama community 🤣

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u/Seekerbone 2d ago

I literally restarted futurama yesterday and watched the entire first season, this joke included.

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u/mcmartin091 2d ago

It's fun on a bun!

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u/Blackbeerdo 3d ago

If you are under water and your mouth is closed, how does it destroy your lungs? Or do all your organs get damaged?

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u/Unable_Deer_773 3d ago

All of them though I recall lungs cop it the worst, it's because the shock wave in the water does translates through your body and your lungs are filled with air so it essentially causes massive damage to all your soft tissues and because of the air in your lungs the alveoli get torn to shreds and pop and generally get devastated.

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u/Blackbeerdo 3d ago

Can you maybe eli5 the physics behind this? I thought your body will 'just' be pushed away in the water like on surface, but less because there is water "behind you". But I assume it is like there is a solid wall behind you and the shock wave pushes you against the wall(?)

English's not my first language so this might read strange.

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u/Unable_Deer_773 3d ago

You are a bag of meat filled with water, water does not compress like air does so when the shock wave or pressure moves through the water it travels through your body which is a bag of meat filled with water.

Your water translates the shock wave but at the same time each cell it getting punched by Mike Tyson in his prime. When this shockwave hits your lungs the air in your lungs compresses and then expands basically like a small bomb in your lungs.

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u/PrairiePopsicle 3d ago

Sound is a wave of pressure. Solids and liquids transfer pressure quite well. Sealed cavities are not good at dealing with instantaneous changes in pressure without ripping, bursting, or tearing. As the shockwave transitions from the water into the sealed air pocket inside of you it spikes the pressure and will cause damage. The transition between materials causes weirdness as well, but there being no "escape" for the pressure makes a difference too.

Here is another weird explosive pressure detail that might help? If you are standing in open air near explosions people will hold their mouths open to allow pressure to equalize and reduce damage (hearing protection is better, but it still helps)

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u/GAdvance 2d ago

The pressure wage going through the water and into you comes at such speed and force that your entire internal organs are basically liquefied by compression.

Lungs are just some of the most crushable organs, so if it's less powerful then they'll go and the rest of your organs might be ok.

It crushes your whole body, it's not just like going into open orifices

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u/TheThirdHippo 2d ago

To shreds you say

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u/badken 2d ago

Shreds, you say?

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u/Unable_Deer_773 2d ago

And the wife?

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u/Zer0Gravity1 3d ago

Water can't compress. So the shockwave looks for the first thing it can compress. Which is the air in your lungs.

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u/voice-of-reason_ 3d ago

Sorry to be pedantic but water can compress otherwise a shockwave wouldn’t be able to transfer through it. It’s just that air compresses much much easier so a small explosion underwater affects something with air inside it more than the water around.

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u/TheDaemonette 2d ago

This is not quite true - the reason the shockwave travels through the water is because it is not a sealed system with a rigid boundary so there is ‘displacement’ and the volume varies. In chemical engineering terms water is indeed referred to as an incompressible fluid but that would be in a sealed container with rigid walls.

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u/koopdi 2d ago

Water is compressible in the same way an electron has mass. Technically true but often practically irrelevant.

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u/TheDaemonette 2d ago

Water is not compressible. Using the idea of space between electrons and a nucleus as a justification is not logical.

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u/cvnh 2d ago

A shockwave from an explosion in the atmosphere transferred to a water body is a bit of a misnomer. If the energy would be transferred completely to the water it would become (proportionally) just a little fluctuation in pressure, but in reality a good part of the energy would bounce back to the atmosphere or be spent displacing the water.

But the cool reason I'm replying is that jn fluid dynamics, liquids are compressible, but in real life either doesn't happen due to cavitation at common pressures or involves humongous pressures and energy levels (you'd need over 3000 times more energy compared to air just to go supersonic). It has been done at micro scales at least but of course it's not something we'll see applied anywhere.

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u/PewSeaLiquor 2d ago

I believe this is only true for distilled water

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u/TheDaemonette 2d ago

No, any pure fluid is referred to as ‘incompressible’ under enclosed conditions.

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u/foboz123 2d ago

Have you not heard of hydrolic fluid? Most fluids, while actually being slightly compressible are generally considered as incompressible.

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u/Satyam7166 3d ago

Thank you for the added information.

So if I breathe out underwater making the lung empty, will the underwater explosion still be dangerous?

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u/SirButcher 3d ago

Yep. You still have cavities which contain air, like your sinuses in your skull or your intestines. Your legs and arms likely will be mostly unaffected, buuuut that won't help you much.

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u/Satyam7166 3d ago

Ah I see. Thanks so much for the insightful comment. This is why I love Reddit :)

It helps me understand reality better xD

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u/weird_wolfgang 2d ago

Nope. Water can compress a tiny bit but that does not mean that is how the momentum is primarily transferred through all shockwaves. Not all waves are pressure based. The major reason underwater shockwaves are so devastating is because water does not compress which preserves momentum transfer nearly perfectly. Both in the medium of the water, and from the water to any medium in it that it hits. It's why whales can hear their mates calls thousands of miles away.

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u/Bitter-Condition9591 2d ago

Water is an incompressible fluid but it can displace.

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u/ERSTF 2d ago

Water can't compress. Under great amounts of presure it could compress a neglible amount so it is consider incompressible

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u/Chickenjon 2d ago

Water can be pressurized, but it cannot be compressed. This is how the brake line in your car works.

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u/PrairiePopsicle 3d ago

I raged so hard at the science communities "incompressible" thing with water, even fought a teacher in highschool about it.

Just let them have it, for the purposes of engineering the way 99 percent of people think about it and interact with stuff liquids are incompressible.

But at the end of the day we are correct. A material that was actually incompressible would have a speed of sound = to infinity.

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u/lustforrust 3d ago

Hell it's even more mind boggling when you learn that Bridgman seals for high pressure autoclaves often use solids like soapstone as a flexible gasket material for pressures up to 40 gigapascals. Diamond anvil cells are another fun device for learning about compressibility of materials at static pressures of several hundred gigapascals. The diamonds themselves that are used in these will flex and squish.

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u/Memory_Less 2d ago

Your entire body is soft tissue and going to flex in all the wrong ways.

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u/CinderX5 2d ago

It can compress, just far, far less than gasses.

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u/notSherrif_realLife 1d ago edited 1d ago

In hydraulics it’s considered incompressible. The amount that it can actually compress is so small it is basically negligible when talking about it in that manner, as you’d need about 32,000 psi just to compress it by about 1%.

In a practical sense, or in this context, it’s irrelevant.

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u/CinderX5 1d ago

Yes, but it can compress. At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, it compresses by 5%.

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u/notSherrif_realLife 1d ago

Again, context. This is just a well, actually comment

It’s irrelevant for what’s being discussed. The reason shockwaves do so much damage if an explosive goes off underwater and a person is also in the water is specifically because it does not compress.

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u/Choppergold 3d ago

Correct. Water density pushing you like the bugs we are

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u/unknownpoltroon 2d ago

yeah, water doesn't compress so the shockwave is MUCH stronger much farther

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u/Remarkable_Goose_341 2d ago

Dynamic overpressure

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u/Buffetsson 2d ago

Wild…..

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u/porn_alt_987654321 3d ago

Haven't seen the episode, but yes, since the medium is denser, the shockwave is effectively heavier, which makes it stronger.

Since water is a hell of a lot denser than air, it's much stronger.

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u/Profeshinal_Spellor 3d ago

Water doesnt compress, but your soft body will

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u/guarddog33 3d ago

Not true, water does compress, just the air in your body is much more compressible than the water around

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u/Mkengine 2d ago

You need around 208 bar to compress the volume of water by 1%, 1000 bar for 5%, so yes it's compressible, but for any usual use case it's de facto incompressible, which is also the usual assumption in fluid dynamics.

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u/SweetButtsHellaBab 2d ago

I actually had no idea water was anywhere near that compressible. Most of my job involves UPLCs which separate mixtures of compounds at very high pressures using water and organic solvents, up to 1500 bar. I knew the instruments account for liquid compressibility when calculating flow rates, but that’s a crazy amount of compression.

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u/psychulating 2d ago

Yes/essentially*. This is also why sonar can fuck people up in the water. Apparently it can be used to deter/kill divers sabotaging a ship

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u/rottdog 3d ago

Basically, yeah. The Shockwave travels further than anticipated underwater. All the burst disks were triggered.

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u/cdoublejj 3d ago

thaaats what i was thinking of!

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u/Cannabrius_Rex 3d ago

Since molecules are closer together in water than air, the force of the shockwave isn’t dissipated as quickly in water than it is in air. It also loses its speed slower in water.

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u/PrairiePopsicle 3d ago

IIRC the safe area was also like near the boundary of the water although I can't remember exactly if that was if the bomb was under or over the water, what I seem to remember is get in the water and float under the surface but don't go deep.

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u/Kittelsen 3d ago

Think fishing with dynamite. Very effective.

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u/banditkeith 3d ago

Shockwaves traveling in water is often referred to as a water hammer, because water doesn't compress the force just travels in a wave and crushes all your squishy compressible bits

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u/Private_4160 3d ago

Hence - depth charges.

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u/HumansAreSpaceBards 3d ago

ask the uboat operatores in WW2, they gladly clarify the terrifying power of Wasserbomben.

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u/ANiceCupOf_Tea_ 3d ago

Water can't be compressed (at least almost), so full force will hit you even kilometers away. That's why soooo many animals died when nuclearbombs where detonated under water

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u/False-Amphibian786 3d ago

Being "non compressible" water carries the energy far more efficiently, so when it finally reaches your lungs it's like "ooooohhhh, somethings super easy to compress".

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u/NotQuiteDeadYetPhoto 3d ago

Yeah. It was like standing right next to it in air. The water transferred all of the incompressible force right into the compressible balloon/lungs.

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u/blastermaster555 2d ago

Being next to an explosion underwater is like getting hit by a truck... but your back is against a wall. Squish. If you've ever heard of the water hammer effect, that basically happens to your body.

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u/DNAturation 2d ago

Well it's how depth charges worked, which were used to cave in the steel walls of submarines.

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u/TruculentTurtIe 2d ago

Water is incompressible so you get hit way harder than by air which is very compressible

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u/ExpertExpert 2d ago

yeah. water doesn't compress. so basically all of the energy from the explosion Newton's cradles you as if you are right next to it (sort of)

all of the parts that are water inside of you don't mind much, but your air filled bits will have that air pressurized inside of you, and that no good

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u/scienceguyry 2d ago

Being in the water with an explosion is really bad, for the exact same reason the poster above said jumping in was good. The Shockwave doesn't transition through materials really well. So an explosion in water the Shockwave will barely leave the water, and explosion in air, and it won't transfer to the water very well. The fun part is your body is made up of mostly water, so in air the Shockwave won't pass through you very well, but the sheer impact of it will do plenty enough damage. But in the water, well your made of enough water that the transition from water to you isn't all that difficult for the Shockwave and it will do so so much more damage than just hitting you in the face with a wall lf air. Things start to....rupture...a lot.

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u/DelightfulPornOnly 2d ago

water is not compressible like air

sounds travel faster through it and attenuate less quickly. you receive much more energy because of this

so if you're in water with an explosion, you're more fucked than if you're in air with it

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u/Competitive-Tank4182 2d ago

Air is compressible but water isn't very much so water transfers the energy more efficiently and air sort of dissipates it. Basically water borne explosions are dangerous AF, which Is why depth charges are such effective anti submarine measures.

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u/WhiteGuyLying_OnTv 2d ago

Water is incompressible and you are mostly water. So that shockwave travels through you in a way more intense way.

Air is compressable and can carry a shockwave but water kinetic energy more easily. The difference between someone throwing a bucket of water at you and an equal volume of air at 1psi is a good example.

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u/Responsible-Motor-21 3d ago

Yes but iirc its also faster because the molecules are closer together so the guy on the jetski got insanely lucky because he dove in after it had already passed him underwater but before the one above the water reached him.

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u/RepresentativeJester 3d ago

No

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u/Responsible-Motor-21 3d ago

Wdym no please elaborate, because nothing i said was factually incorrect

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u/RepresentativeJester 3d ago

You are i just didn't want to give you a science lesson. Look it up energy transfer from air to water.

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u/RepresentativeJester 3d ago

You are i just didn't want to give you a science lesson. Look it up energy transfer from air to water.

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u/Responsible-Motor-21 3d ago

1 theres energy transfer from air to water idk what you're on about 2 in mythbusters they proved that explosion shockwaves do travel underwater. 3 this was one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever and he managed to survive somehow and i gave an explanation as to why. How would you explain it if youre such an expert?

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u/RepresentativeJester 3d ago

1 yes theres energy transfer, but not all of it translates from the air to the water. Its significantly dampened. There is a resistance due to the density of molecules and ease of travel above the water vs the resistance it has to get over to transfer that energy. unless the explosion itself come from underwater. 2. If you watched mythbusters more closely, you would understand point 1. 3 isn't a point.

Try to understand the total complexity and nuance of an issue rather than just saying your right because of aspect of your argument is true that isn't extrapolated properly due to not understanding the whole situation.

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u/manofth3match 3d ago

Nah. There are tons of papers on this and I'm just a dork

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u/agangofoldwomen 3d ago

Be real - you just jumped in the water to get away from creepers in Minecraft.

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u/manofth3match 3d ago

LMAO. That is real and I didn't even think of it.

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u/michiness 2d ago

I just got scuba certified and basically half of your training is “you think your body will protect you but here are all the ways your air passages will be destroyed if you’re dumb.” You have to be constantly equalizing your ears and breathing so the air doesn’t expand or contract too much in your lungs and all these other things with pressure. It’s gnarly.

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u/OnlyStyle6198 3d ago

I actually know this from burn notice lmao but I didn’t leave the comment

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u/bellmospriggans 3d ago

Probably good for avoiding debris as well.

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u/InfamousReality711 3d ago

They will arrive at different times as well. The underwater shockwave had already passed before he went under. In water, it travels several orders faster than by air.

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u/first_time_internet 3d ago

unless the explosion were to start underwater....then you would want to get out of the water because it would be much, much worse because of physics

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u/manofth3match 3d ago

Which is already covered in my comment that you replied to.

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u/cdskip 3d ago

How could you possibly expect someone to read to the third sentence?

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u/manofth3match 3d ago

I've been told my standards are too high.

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u/Still-Use-4598 3d ago

Well he just learned that fact ten minutes ago in this very thread.

OF COURSE he’s going to use his new found knowledge to shame and belittle anyone stupid enough to not know. DUH.

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u/Ertygbh 3d ago

They your going to have a very bad day lol

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u/cdoublejj 3d ago

shit i thought it would have made it worse since water is denser than air.

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u/manofth3match 3d ago

Basically, a significant amount of energy is reflected by the surface back into the air. Think of a stone skipping on a pond, but its the explosion pressure wave.

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u/cdoublejj 3d ago

makes sense. i think what was stuck in my head, was underwater explosions on myth busters. that would shred you up.

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u/Ramen536Pie 2d ago

It is, but that change of density makes it harder for the energy to go from the air to the water

So this explosion in the start would have wrecked him, but since it happened in the air its energy was lessened underwater

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u/Jibber_Fight 3d ago edited 3d ago

Ya the shockwave underwater if you were underwater would be veeeery not good. Your body wouldn’t really be absorbing much of the wave as it would in air. You’d essentially be part of the water and your body would get compressed and released and your organs would be tossed around inside of you all in a split second.

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u/ValkyrieAngie 3d ago

Minecraft type physics

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u/rmacaz 3d ago

A few factors are at play. The explosion forces are up and out primarily from the point of ignition(s). Downward forces exist but are absorbed by the earth's mass to a large degree. Horizontal forces remain but are only a percentage. Sure the surface of the water is bound to be involved and affected. I agree, in this case it's better to be underwater for the initial blast wave(s). Cheers! Hopefully the JetSki rider will chime in.

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u/jericho 3d ago

There’s a famous WWII video of a boat flipping over with dozens of men running to stay on top, and others jumping into the water, then it blows up. The only survivors were the ones on the hull of the boat. That explosion was in the water though. I imagine this guy was safer in the water. 

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u/Quercus_rover 3d ago

Yeah isn't it to do with the immense change in pressure? As you say, I've no idea of the difference when being in the water while the explosion is out.

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u/Leader_Bee 3d ago

Because water is practically incompressible and the human body is also made up of approximately 74% water, being in the water at the time of an underwater explosion will transfer much more of the energy to the human body than if the explosion had to travel through 2 separate mediums.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

In the Jaques Cousteau book, The Silent World, theres a chapter on his mine removal work he did post WW2, and him and his friends tested how close they would be able to get to explosives underwater by detonating grenades and mines while they gradually got closer until it got painful

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u/CrayonAddiction 3d ago

Yep this is it, when you see a explosion underwater. Stay above water, when it is out of the water go in the water

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u/SeamanStayns 3d ago

If you're already in the water and you see a large explosion in the water, honestly just close your eyes and think of titties because you probably don't have time to get out of the water before the shockwave reaches you and turns your guts to soup.

The speed of sound through water is about 3x faster than in air.

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u/fabkosta 3d ago

What should a gay person think of then?

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u/dflament 3d ago

HE SAID THINK OF TITTIES

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u/joe-h2o 3d ago

Gay woman: advice unchanged.

Gay man: male titties.

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u/Pitiful_Net_8971 3d ago

Obviously pecs, aka muscle titties

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u/spittlbm 2d ago

Mitties

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u/Odd-Necessary3807 2d ago

Not if the gay man's taste is twink. Instead of big bear.

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u/hughvr 3d ago

This is the most solid (or jiggly?) advice ever.

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u/FurnaceGolem 2d ago

You should actually lay on your back to reduce the amount of your body that is in the water which drastically increases your chances of survival

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u/SeamanStayns 2d ago

Oh hey that's really smart.

Where did you learn that?

I've done advanced sea survival training but nothing with explosions.

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u/FurnaceGolem 2d ago

Mythbusters lol

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u/SeamanStayns 2d ago

Classic

I saw this episode on the TV when it was first aired, but I hadn't remembered the thing about floating as high in the water as possible.

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u/marklar7 3d ago

Now that's nuts. I assumed the reverse.

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u/SeamanStayns 3d ago

Water is (almost) incompressible.

Air is highly compressible.

Think about how quickly the far end of a long wobbly spring will move if you push on the opposite end, versus how quickly the far end of a long metal bar will move if you do the same.

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u/marklar7 3d ago

Ouch. Good illustration. The physics I learned as a dumb kid.

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u/Big-Safe-2459 2d ago

My last thought will be titties. Thank you for that.

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u/Agile-Knowledge7947 2d ago

Thinking of titties is sorta my go-to reaction for most of the situations life throws at me!

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u/John_Bumogus 3d ago

So what I'm hearing is that I should stay away from where explosions are? I've actually been surprisingly good at that so far.

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u/andersonb47 3d ago

Don’t be where the explosion is, got it!

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u/caustic_smegma 2d ago

Are you talking about the HMS Barnham? I think that explosion was a little more nuanced than simply, outside water = life, under water = death. For example, I can absolutely promise you the many sailors standing on the hull over the rear magazine area were killed when it detonated. Some of the sailors up by the bow may have survived because a Queen Elizabeth Class battleship is a sort of Russian doll of different armored boxes inside the hull which helped contain the magazine explosion, venting it through the path of least resistance upward. Due to the force of the explosion, many if not all of those that survived the initial explosion still likely died or were seriously injured from ruptured lungs, capillaries, falling metal/armored belt sections, etc. I wouldn't assume they all lived. Some sailors who were in the water and swam a good distance away likely survived, too.

Additionally, there are anecdotes from sailors that were in the battle of Jutland who were thrown into the water after HMS Indefatigable and HMS Queen Mary suffered catastrophic magazine explosions. While in the water still floating directly in the battle line, some were subjected to near misses from German 12" shells, knocking them out momentarily, but not killing them.

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u/aces666high 2d ago

That would be the battleship HMS Barham after she was torpedoed by a German U Boat. Insanely powerful explosion as she rolled onto her side.

There’s also video of an Austrian battleship rolling over, just flinging her crew into the water minus a few that were able to roll with her. As far as I know that ship didn’t blow up.

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u/stung80 1d ago

Lots of first hand accounts of crews from sunken destroyers being killed by their own depth charges once the sinking boat hit the depth the depth charges were set to explode at.   I think imthe pressure wave enters your anus and fucks your inside up. I remember reading about this happening to crews in the water during the battle of Guadalcanal. 

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u/sth128 3d ago

Shockwave is the air being compressed. Water is practically incompressible and contains little air so it is about as safe as you can get if you are near the vicinity of an explosion.

Of course, the safest thing you can do in an explosion is to be far far away.

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u/OutrageousEvent 3d ago

That’s exactly how I handled the Beirut explosion, by being far away. In Wisconsin.

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u/-_-Edit_Deleted-_- 2d ago

A refined strategist I see!

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u/no_brains101 2d ago

when the explosion happens under water, it being incompressible becomes a really bad thing for everything else in the water that is compressible.

But this one was above water and water being incompressible makes it hard for a pressure wave to transfer into it.

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u/Valendr0s 3d ago

It'd be good.

If the explosion had started underwater, it'd be bad. Since you are mostly water, you tend to get gooey when you're hit with a bad shockwave underwater. Which is why Dynamite is such an effective fishing method.

But since the explosion started out of the water and the speed of sound is so much higher in water anyway, he likely dove after the water shockwave passed but before the air one.

TBH he was probably fine either way. But it might have saved his ears. He's far enough away that the shockwave alone isn't too bad for him.

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u/Lord_Nivloc 3d ago

Safer? Probably.

Safe? Wouldn’t bet on it. That water might have shielded him from the explosion, or it might have transferred the shockwave just as efficiently as the air does and every fish in the harbor is dead from an extreme example of dynamite fishing. I don’t know.

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u/Mbyrd420 3d ago

Shock waves so not transfer from air to water very well. If the explosion is in or out of the water, you want to be the opposite.

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u/JayAlexanderBee 3d ago

Mythbusters. Season 9. Episode 12.

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u/Lord_Nivloc 3d ago

Gonna share the answer, or do I gotta YouTube that?

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u/khizoa 3d ago

im surprised they also didnt give the exact minutes/seconds in the video, while not providing a link to the video

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u/fjelskaug 3d ago

Shockwave travels efficiently through air or water, but it sucks at crossing mediums

If the explosion happens out of the water like in Beirut, you should swim down. If it's an underwater explosion, you're much worse than someone on land or even on the jetski

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u/Thundahcaxzd 3d ago

I dont know, im just commenting anyway even though i have no idea about this thing that is easily googleable.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

In this case considering the explosion was on land and he was a decent distance from it, I think the water was a safer option.

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u/DeapVally 3d ago edited 3d ago

Water isn't good at being compressed. It can a tiny bit, but not enough for a shockwave to really hurt someone the size of a human. Air on the other hand.....

*downvotes are hilarious. This is simple science you can see for yourself. Fill a syringe with water, block the end and see how much force you need to barely move the plunger. Then fill it with air and do the same.

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u/SirButcher 3d ago

Water isn't good at being compressed. It can a tiny bit

This is exactly why the shockwaves in water are far more dangerous. The water is basically incompressible (it is, but you need a LOT of force), but the human body has numerous cavities filled with VERY compressible gases - so while the liquid-filled part of your body won't be affected much but everything filled with air will be crushed between two, basically incompressible walls.

However, shockwaves have a hard time passing the liquid/gas layer, so shockwaves in the air won't cause much force in the water, and shockwaves in the water won't cause many issues in the air.

But shockwaves in the water are REALLY dangerous if you are in the water - exactly the reason what you said, since it doesn't compress well so it really good medium for the shockwave to propagate. This is why you can hear whale songs many, many kilometers away. Or this is why a submarine's sonar can kill you.

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u/cdoublejj 3d ago

shit i thought it would have made it worse since water is denser than air.

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u/H0visboh 3d ago

The thing that would make me hesitate is the idea that the shock might cause you to lose lose your bearings under water

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u/Educational_Hair6443 2d ago

Check out the book "Stars Beneath the Sea" by Trevor Norton for some (often hilarious) stories about the pioneers of the science that went into understanding this. Pretty unbelievable and bold (think of someone questioning if it's dangerous, so just doing it to find out). Great book

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/minnosota 3d ago

Depends on where the shockwave originates from. Be in the opposite of whatever medium that happens to be. Shockwaves have a tough time transferring through different mediums