buoyancy

Is there a liquid that a person can not swim in due to the inability to
become buoyant in that liquid? Let’s say the swimmer is invulnerable to
temperature, acid, blah blah blah and the only issue is whether or not the
swimmer can become buoyant. Is there a liquid that could not support a
swimming person?

A person is basically water. There are some heavier components but there is also air filled areas.

If the liquid is significantly less dense than water he can’t swin for an extended time. He can always swim a short distance, the same as he can swim in air [jump].

You can also aerate water to make it less dense.

my wag is a light grade petrolium or liquid natural gas. Probally liquid hydrogen would be the lightest (least dense) liquid.
Even though a person would not be bouyant, doesn’t mean he will sink, the person could expend energy to stay afloat (swim)

I cannot think of any common liquid that would be lighter than water by a great margin. Ethanol is about 0.79… just try not to swallow too much.

How about mercury? The difficult part might be breaking the surface tension… I’m not sure how that works, but I do know that you can float lead ingots on mercury… talk about weird things to see…

But I don’t know how density would affect surface tension…I don’t know if you would sink in an inch or so, or if it would work like a water bed, and keep you on the surface, although maybe in a depression… hmmmm…

Any thoughts from the scientist community out there??

I think you have your answer, system_hoser. Especially if this is research for a murder mystery that you are writing.

Mercury might apply.

Except that, surely, you would not be inable to become buoyant in mercury?

Of course! Warum nicht?

I posted on this above… what do you guys think…? heheh

Any grade of oil, from residual bunker fuel to gasoline, is less dense than water. If you fall into a tank full of it you will sink like a stone.

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I think TnTruth’s reply is the one that scares me the most; knowing that even though I can swim there is still something fairly common that I could fall into and sink like a stone.