# Floating **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2001, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/floating/72679 "2001-07-16T14:37:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![b-side](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/90ced4/32.png) [@b-side](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/b-side)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/floating/72679/21 "2001-07-17T14:29:09Z")
Our friend from the US Navy makes the best case. If your life depended on it, and you were prevented from treading water, you would float (unless you had a panic attack and drowned yourself). For those of you who insist that you cannot float, I have to think that it is, as mmmiiikkkeee pointed out, a case of you thinking/wishing you were special/cool. Or, more likely, that you wish to call attention to your low body fat %. Now, if someone (preferably with an advanced degree, not some shmoe with a copy of Physics for Dummies) would talk to me about the physics, I would much appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![scraps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71c47a/32.png) [@scraps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scraps)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/floating/72679/22 "2001-07-17T15:53:01Z")
I am not a great athlete, but I do consider myself a fairly good swimmer. When I met my husband he claimed to be a “sinker”. He said that since he never learned to tread water if he stopped swimming he would sink. I thought he was nuts. So, I took him swimming. Sure enough, he sank! So I tried to teach him to tread. Well, it’s been 13 yrs., and he still can’t tread water. He also has a bit more body fat than most of us would like and you would he’d float. So , yes, I do believe some people do sink, and I don’t think that body fat has all that much to do with it. Scraps ---
**Author:** ![Venkman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ec9cab/32.png) [@Venkman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Venkman)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/floating/72679/23 "2001-07-17T17:04:01Z")
Chronos, you’re right that body position doesn’t really matter. It’s not that I can’t float on my back, I just can’t do it in a way that keeps my mouth/nose free of water so I can breath while doing so. But I do contend I couldn’t float when I was younger - I’d fill my lungs full of air, go completely limp, and slowly drift to the bottom of the pool. Now I do the same thing and I float. ---
**Author:** ![breaknrun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbce88/32.png) [@breaknrun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/breaknrun)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/floating/72679/24 "2001-07-17T17:48:20Z")
I don’t float either. I haven’t been in a pool in a long time but I’ve tried to float in various positions with lungs fully inflated and I sink, slowly but surely. I’ve never heard that anyone could float though so I didn’t think I was abnormal in that way. I don’t believe everyone can float and I don’t see why some of you folks insist that it must be so. It might be uncommon but it certainly isn’t impossible that some of us won’t float. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/floating/72679/25 "2001-07-17T21:35:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by b-side \* > **For those of you who insist that you cannot float, I have to think that it is, as mmmiiikkkeee pointed out, a case of you thinking/wishing you were special/cool.** Ooh, look at me as I stupidly sink to the bottom, don’t you wish you could sink? nope, don’t think so \*\* > [@](#): > > Or, more likely, that you wish to call attention to your low body fat %.\*\* slightly more likely, but not true in my case, I’m not a skin and bones type, but I sink (wow, it’s so cool) > [@](#): > > \*\*Now, if someone (preferably with an advanced degree, not some shmoe with a copy of Physics for Dummies) would talk to me about the physics, I would much appreciate it. \*\* If an object displaces more than it’s own weight of fluid, it floats, otherwise not, that’s prettymuch it, unless you’re small enough for things like surface tension to make a difference. I’m not kidding, I really can’t float, it’s not the sort of thing that one can easily be mistaken about… ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2001, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/floating/72679/26 "2001-07-17T22:38:06Z")
I do not float. I swim a lot, open water swimming as well as pool workouts. I feel I’m reasonably comfortable in the water, in fact, water relaxes me. As long as I’m sculling or treading or swimming, I stay up. When I stop, I go straight to the bottom. (And no, my overall body fat percentage is not all that low - but I do have a theory based on where I tend to carry fat) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/floating/72679.md?page=1)