# Scuba diver and pressure in air tank

If a scuba diver is to remain submerged for 1 hour, what pressure must be applied to force sufficient air into the tank to be used? Assume .5 Liters of air per breath a standard atmospheric pressure, a respiration rate of 38 breaths per minute, and a tank capacity of 30 Liters.
How would you go by solving this problem? I tried dimensional analysis but I got stuck.

## Answers and Replies

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The equation you can use is;

P$$_{1}$$V$$_{1}$$ = P$$_{2}$$V$$_{2}$$

Just rearrange it to solve for P$$_{2}$$, which is what you want to know.

Then you just have to figure out how many liters of air the diver will breathe in that hour. It tells you the volume of each breath, and how many breaths he'll take (breaths per minute times sixty minutes). So that'll give you the V$$_{1}$$ that he needs, whereas the V$$_{2}$$ is the volume of the tank.

And I still don't know why the Latex codes are displaying those numbers as superscripts rather than subscripts....

chemisttree
Homework Helper
Gold Member
The equation you can use is;

$$P_1V_1 = P_2V_2$$

Just rearrange it to solve for $$P_2$$, which is what you want to know.

Then you just have to figure out how many liters of air the diver will breathe in that hour. It tells you the volume of each breath, and how many breaths he'll take (breaths per minute times sixty minutes). So that'll give you the $$V_1$$ that he needs, whereas the $$V_2$$ is the volume of the tank.

And I still don't know why the Latex codes are displaying those numbers as superscripts rather than subscripts....
Like this?

Yeah, like that, I need to consult the instructions for using Latex apparently.

Edit: Feh, of course I just now realized what I'd done wrong.

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