Deep-sea divers often breathe a mixture of helium and oxygen to avoid the complications of breathing...

80.2K

Verified Solution

Question

Physics

Deep-sea divers often breathe a mixture of helium and oxygen toavoid the complications of breathing high-pressure nitrogen. Atgreat depths the mix is almost entirely helium, which has the sideeffect of making the divers' voices sound very odd. Breathinghelium doesn't affect the frequency at which the vocal cordsvibrate, but it does affect the frequencies of the formants. Thetext gives the frequencies of the first two formants for an \"ee\"vowel sound as 270 and 2300 Hz.
What will these frequencies be for a helium-oxygen mixture inwhich the speed of sound at body temperature is 720m/s ? (Use 350m/s for the speed of sound in the air.)

Answer & Explanation Solved by verified expert

4.3 Ratings (993 Votes)

Nope Pure oxygen is deadly to a diver It causes whats called oxygen toxicity that can cause a diver to suffer seizures at the very least Oxygen content in a breathing mix is depth dependent The deeper you go the less oxygen you want in your mix or the less exposure you want to that mix Over the years from trial and error dive tables have been developed for the different gas mixes Basically these tables help a diver figure out mathamatically how to conduct a dive to a certain depth using a certain gas mix for a certain amount of time They tell you what you can and cannot do Oxygen isnt the only concern in a breathing mix since we cant breathe 100 O2 There has to be another gas in that tanks It will be nitrogen and maybe even helium depending on the See Answer

Get Answers to Unlimited Questions

Join us to gain access to millions of questions and expert answers. Enjoy exclusive benefits tailored just for you!

Membership Benefits:

Unlimited Question Access with detailed Answers
Zin AI - 3 Million Words
10 Dall-E 3 Images
20 Plot Generations
Conversation with Dialogue Memory
No Ads, Ever!
Access to Our Best AI Platform: Flex AI - Your personal assistant for all your inquiries!

Become a Member