Neutral buoyancy occurs when an object in a liquid or gas maintains a constant depth. If the object is heavier than the medium, it sinks; if it is lighter, it rises. Water is the most common medium for buoyancy, and mammals can achieve neutral buoyancy through controlled breathing. Submarines and divers use mechanical and skill-based methods to achieve and maintain neutral buoyancy. NASA trains astronauts in a neutral buoyancy space simulator.
Neutral buoyancy is achieved when an object or body within a liquid or gas neither rises nor sinks but, instead, maintains a constant depth. If the effect of gravity on the weight of the liquid or gas displaced by the object is not overcome, i.e. if the object is heavier than the medium in which it is found, it becomes less buoyant and sinks. Conversely, if the gravitational effect on the object is exceeded too much, if the object is lighter than medium, it will become more buoyant and rise. Neutral buoyancy is the state in which the mass of an object inside a vehicle equals the weight of the displaced vehicle.
Normally, water is the most commonly implicated medium when discussing buoyancy. Thus, the pressure that water exerts on a submerged object towards the surface is its buoyancy. The denser the water an object is immersed in, the more buoyant the object becomes.
Neutral buoyancy in water is an approximation of the weightlessness of space. Since the mid-1950s the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in collaboration with the United States Army has maintained the Neutral Buoyancy Space Simulator where astronauts, maintaining constant neutral buoyancy in a huge tank filled with water, are trained to live and work in the weightless environment of space. NASA currently maintains two of these facilities; the original simulator in Huntsville, Alabama and a new facility in Houston, Texas.
Mammals, while somewhat buoyant by nature, are constantly creating positive and negative buoyancy through the simple act of breathing. Air, inherently lighter than water, is inhaled and momentarily stored in the lungs thus ensuring positive buoyancy as it rises through the water. On exhalation, the mass of the lungs with depletion of air becomes more subject to gravity, so the body becomes more negatively buoyant, more susceptible to gravity, and will tend to sink. The acquisition of neutral buoyancy can be achieved through controlled breathing.
Submarines are able to achieve neutral buoyancy through a mechanical means of balancing the amount of air with the amount of water in the ship’s ballast tanks. Divers must also be skilled at achieving and maintaining neutral buoyancy. Diving with SCUBA equipment essentially requires the ability to maintain a constant depth to maneuver and work. Constant buoyancy adjustment deprives a diver of necessary stamina and takes attention away from the dive’s objective, thus taking away much of the diver’s pleasure and/or utility.
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