Yes, it would. That’s not what the bubbles were for…
How the heck is an air bubble going to pull you down? It rises, you go with it.
Bubbles in water lower the density of the water making it difficult to stay afloat. Salt water is heavier than fresh water and that makes it easier to float. Air bubbles would have the opposite effect.
No, they reduce the density of the water and you fall down. It’s been suggested that that may be how the Bermuda triangle makes boats disappear.
There are lots of reasons an adult OR child might not know how to swim. Most people don’t have a pool at home, or a jacuzzi in their backyard. People of various ethnicities have good reason to avoid wetting their hair. Parents might be working multiple jobs to keep the family afloat, and not have time or money for swimming lessons.
Of course, I’m not arguing that non-swimmers should try to participate in activities of which only swimmers are capable at a waterpark, but that’s different than passing a value judgment on someone’s inability to swim in the first place.
Nitpick: only changes in temperature affect the density of water. The bubbles lower the pressure in the affected column of water, not its density (except to the extent that they replace a given quantity of water).
Double nitpick. You’re right that they don’t change the density of the water itself but they do, however change the density of what’s under you (or the boat).
Think of this - if the air bubble was gigantic, and it came up from underneath you, what happens? You fall “into” the bubble, and … continue to float up like in the cartoons, right?
No, you fall down, pulled by gravity, because air is less dense than water.
A million little bubbles does the same thing, one little bubble at a time - decreasing the average density of the patch of water you’re sitting in, and gravity takes over.
Air bubbles rise in water, lifting you to the surface. As an experiment, I tried staying underwater against the bubbles; I couldn’t do it.
The blast came from the bottom of the pool, though I assumed people would understand that.
River Country is long gone, but when I was about 11 my family went there. I am not a strong swimmer, and while I was going down one high and long half-pipe waterslide I was dragging my hands along the sides to slow myself down a bit. Next thing I know WHAM some mans legs come over my shoulders from behind and we slide down like greased lightning until I’m dumped into deep water at the bottom with him on top of me. I got to the top ok but it was no fun.
Maybe if the kids were “bad” kids (like in The Omen) or if they had some sorta large trust fund set up by a grandparent.
Put them in dry suit?? he he he
Why would we need to make any changes to a water park for them?
Not many things a person can’t find an exception for. I do that all the time also. Makes me an asshat too. I should have said ‘almost.’ I hate it when you catch me on that. :smack:
Not quite. A million little bubbles will accrete on a solid object (such as a person) and add to their buoyancy, plus create a column of rising water. A few smaller bubbles won’t. So, depending on the mix of bubble sizes and how densely packed they are in the jet below you, they could actually exert a pushing effect.
You’d be surprised how many kids have tympanostomy tubes (or grommets, as we called them in the UK). I didn’t learn to swim until I was eight or nine, simply because I had to avoid submerging my head.
Mythbusters has addressed this. You will fall in bubbly water.
I guess since I’m a tad over 6’ I have to agree that I’d rather be dumped into ~ 4 foot water than run the risk of hitting the bottom, which I’ve done before, and it’s not fun.
Perhaps it was not exclusively bubbles that were being shot upwards. Maybe there was a current of water as well? If it’s very shallow, and you’re right on top of the jet, and it’s blowing extremely hard, then I can see you getting pushed up as the water is forced away from the plume of air.
But just gentle bubbles coming up from the bottom of the pool, without a significant force of water pressure associated with them, aren’t going to carry you upwards like a million little water fairies.
Linky Watch a couple of these videos. I’m sure one or more will answer the question in a more entertaining way. If not, you’ll at least be occupied for a while. Mythbusters are good for that.
If I could interject it makes me extremely angry when people say things like “everyone should be able to swim”. Everyone has different abilities, and just because I can’t swim I don’t feel like a defective person because of that. I don’t look down on people that can’t drive a manual transmission or do integration because I know some people simply aren’t gifted in those areas, so I’d expect the same respect to be given to me.
I have noticed that “deep water” areas of waterparks are becoming fewer and fewer. There’s not really any being built.
If I could interject, it makes me extremely angry when people who can’t swim want water parks changed just to accommodate them.
Which is what the thread is about more or less.
Add up all the people just in the US that have a legitimate reason to not learn to swim. That is what % say you. They get to have everything set up to accommodate them?
Do we not already do a lot of that for the disabled?
Do you equate the lack of learning to swim for whatever reason, an disability? 
Basically. The issues the OP were experiencing strike me as bizarre. Why would one even go to a water park with no idea how to deal with a small amount of water?
:rolleyes: Mythbusters is entertainment and rarely if ever scientifically rigorous.
And I’m not getting this anger - nobody is asking you to be able to swim the English Channel, or even to be able to survive in 10’ breaking surf with a 8mph rip - what’s so difficult about having the ability to doggy paddle 20 or 30 feet?
Which is a crying shame - for those of us that DO know how to swim, deep water areas open up a whole extra range of options, experiences and fun to be had.