Why Can't We Breathe Underwater?

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  • čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
  • Water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen, so why aren't we able to breathe underwater? Find out in this episode of BrainStuff.
    Source: science.howstuf...

Komentáře • 358

  • @charlesverg2184
    @charlesverg2184 Před 10 lety +98

    people thinking they're too smart to watch this video and then post comments saying how stupid this video is, but still watch it because they dont know the answer x)

  • @jackhibbert1
    @jackhibbert1 Před 10 lety +47

    i breath underwater really well... when i asleep.. and dreaming...

  • @aroradaksh
    @aroradaksh Před 8 lety +31

    Is it just me or did anyone else also notice the fact than Ben is reading from another source right next to the camera lens! :O

  • @acholngong6952
    @acholngong6952 Před 5 lety +3

    This is funny because I literally just finished reading the exact article, word for word on why humans can't breathe underwater. Having said so, it was nice to find a video that actually gave a verbal demonstration of the article. Gives more perspective and makes it easy to take in the information.
    Great video overall. Thank you! :)

  • @AlexTran
    @AlexTran Před 10 lety +5

    man thank you for answering my child hood question even tho i never even bother bought it back up for a while

  • @movesguy
    @movesguy Před 8 lety +6

    You guys remember the movie The Abyss? There is a scene where the actor actually breathes that orange liquid in some kind of space suit looking thing.

  • @user-lr6wh4hw8v
    @user-lr6wh4hw8v Před 11 lety +6

    I always look at my gold fish and ask myself why they like bubbles I know why now thanks

  • @cmckeonjr
    @cmckeonjr Před 11 lety

    From The Straight Dope (website):
    [Gills] are rather delicate, and their tremendous surface area (the main thing that makes them work so well) is dependent on being immersed in water to support their weight. Out of water, the gills collapse like wet tissue paper, and very little surface area is left exposed for gas exchange. Most fish, therefore, can only survive a short time out of water before oxygen deficiency catches up with them and they asphyxiate.

  • @Mauricejonesdrew3213
    @Mauricejonesdrew3213 Před 10 lety +48

    Hm.. Seems a bit fishy to me.

    • @codyh9408
      @codyh9408 Před 8 lety +3

      Took a year for me to notice this wet pun indeed...

    • @GoldandAppel
      @GoldandAppel Před 7 lety

      Dolphins13718 lol.

  • @cmckeonjr
    @cmckeonjr Před 11 lety

    More than half is oxygen. The other major elements are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus. Minor elements are potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium. There are trace amounts of many other elements, some essential; most notably, iron.

  • @ashleypatricia90
    @ashleypatricia90 Před 11 lety +1

    Wow, I thought I knew where that was going, but you surprised me! Love it

  • @OwlexMyth
    @OwlexMyth Před 8 lety +1

    Good to know. Thanks for the video. There are many other videos that seem like they would cover this in depth, but don't.

  • @Pluviie
    @Pluviie Před 8 lety +1

    thank you so much! this helped me a lot with my Chemics Paper

  • @amorag59
    @amorag59 Před 11 lety +2

    I read somewhere your body only really needs to breath once every minute to get the correct amount of oxygen. The reason we breath so much is to rid our body of co2.

  • @brianriback6285
    @brianriback6285 Před 8 lety +1

    I think that's a cool analogy! It helped me understand!

  • @thedisplayname
    @thedisplayname Před 11 lety

    Thanks, drhilltube! I really appreciate your time.

  • @suit1337
    @suit1337 Před 11 lety

    well the carbon dioxide is not really "dissolved" in the beverages like oxygen is dissolved in water - it exists in an chemical equilibrium and changes form CO2 + H2O back and forth with H2CO3 where oxygen dissolved in water just stays O2 and does not react with the H2O.

  • @mugofbrown6234
    @mugofbrown6234 Před 4 lety

    I was thinking about asking my friend's kids this after lockdown. A simple question with a very interesting answer. Cheers.

  • @bartosdiagos
    @bartosdiagos Před 11 lety

    all i can say is, that i breath through my nose and i was on the bottom of the swimmingpool, about 1.5 meter deep. and i was moving very slow forwrads.
    i could easely breath slowly, and i remember that if you devide your nose in to 2 parts
    upper and lower part, that i breath through the upper part sort a say.
    (sorry for my english)

  • @TheSentientCloud
    @TheSentientCloud Před 11 lety +1

    *holds a glass of water over my head*
    There, I'm breathing under water.

  • @superiorlongboards
    @superiorlongboards Před 11 lety

    i was expecting him to say that it will go into your lung and you will drown and die i got way more information than i expected thats why i like this channel

  • @zynouger3094
    @zynouger3094 Před 7 lety

    do one about life in the womb and how baby's survive the nine months please.

  • @homedogmendez7731
    @homedogmendez7731 Před 7 lety +1

    I love your videos and all the new things I have learned.

  • @Khanival
    @Khanival Před 10 lety +19

    um we can breath water inside of our embryo during child hood so why cant we now

    • @tombproduct
      @tombproduct Před 10 lety +4

      "The Abyss" good movie that utilizes that concept positively!

    • @tombproduct
      @tombproduct Před 10 lety

      Also, our bodies adapt to breath air filtered oxygen as we grow as we no longer need this attribute.

    • @mrmister1657
      @mrmister1657 Před 5 lety

      DeadliestPotato do newborns have it? Like day olds not months

    • @20maxilo
      @20maxilo Před 5 lety

      Wrong.. We breathe it through the placenta tube.. We breathe through our own lungs

    • @user-bd1yv8gd5x
      @user-bd1yv8gd5x Před 4 lety

      TakeAPill Ummm no that’s not how it works😂

  • @TheSentientCloud
    @TheSentientCloud Před 11 lety +1

    \o3o/ I accomplished something today! Now if only I could stop procrastinating and accomplish finishing my homework -3-

  • @thedisplayname
    @thedisplayname Před 11 lety

    Jasper, your kind comment made my day. Thanks a million!

  • @drhilltube
    @drhilltube Před 11 lety +1

    Thanks Ben, love your work.

  • @SWIFTzTrigger
    @SWIFTzTrigger Před 9 lety

    isn't "dissolved oxygen in water" the same as breathing water? just that they separate the O from the H2O? I don't understand what he means when he says they don't breathe water but the dissolved oxygen in water...

  • @theappealtoheaven
    @theappealtoheaven Před 11 lety +1

    Made my evening bro :D

  • @XcherriesNchocolateX
    @XcherriesNchocolateX Před 11 lety +5

    so elements are like people? All the same ingredients but all different?

    • @funki4902
      @funki4902 Před 7 lety

      Exactly

    • @muck188
      @muck188 Před 7 lety

      yeah but were we once in side our moms were mostly made out of water inside

  • @MarioXDBros
    @MarioXDBros Před 11 lety +1

    How do gills of fish work?

  • @Moonlight-zx5wc
    @Moonlight-zx5wc Před 2 lety +1

    I know why we cant breathe in underwater already.
    Because we don't have a geels but fish has.
    The geels means that can breathe underwater.

  • @mgb360
    @mgb360 Před 11 lety +1

    He said that there is 20x as much oxygen in the air. Some people live with only one lung. I would assume that would mean you'd have to have about 20 lungs.

  • @tylersaxon285
    @tylersaxon285 Před 4 lety

    i typed up how do fish drown underwater from spongebob but i got this i appreiciate your hard work explianing it to us god bless you man

  • @emythehufflepuff1301
    @emythehufflepuff1301 Před 8 lety

    Cool im doing stuff on tides And this is a cool add on thanks

  • @thedisplayname
    @thedisplayname Před 11 lety

    I think that's a great idea, too. Thanks for posting!

  • @cmckeonjr
    @cmckeonjr Před 11 lety

    The cold-blooded thing is a tangled problem.

  • @sam3d
    @sam3d Před 9 lety

    i liked this explanation.

  • @bigbodyblood6477
    @bigbodyblood6477 Před 7 lety

    Idk if I was day dreaming or something because a few times I was in a pool under water I could take a few breaths through my nose then I tried to go back down and do it and wouldn't work

  • @thedisplayname
    @thedisplayname Před 11 lety

    You are indeed first, lupic90. Congratulations!

  • @davideslami5807
    @davideslami5807 Před 11 lety

    @xmCism its possible, but we don't know what be consequences may be

  • @bartosdiagos
    @bartosdiagos Před 11 lety

    i can breath under water, dont know if i can still doe it, but when i was younger i couldt breath, but after 2 min. i was scared so i went up, but there was no problem what so ever....

  • @Wickedstickyflowers
    @Wickedstickyflowers Před 3 lety

    That crazy What’s going on with the technology today for deep-sea diving

  • @pokio55
    @pokio55 Před 11 lety

    doesnt the mantis shrimp punch so fast it forms air bubbles?we might be able to anything

  • @xalan6565
    @xalan6565 Před 8 lety

    Question! Why can't we breathe nitrogen? (Although technically a small % is inhaled when we breathe)

    • @SuperMegaUltraPigeon
      @SuperMegaUltraPigeon Před 8 lety

      Nitrogen is mostly inert, because nitrogen molecules have a triple bond (incredibly hard to break), so we would need to put in a huge amount of effort to break it up.

  • @pianzhenguang
    @pianzhenguang Před rokem

    OOh, Just mind blown ! THank you !

  • @mrmister1657
    @mrmister1657 Před 5 lety

    Well it’s probably best we stay on land it’s scary down there even in regular lakes

  • @tripwire202
    @tripwire202 Před 3 lety +1

    I always thought that fish breathed water -- not the gasses dissolved inside of it!
    Welp, my mind has been blown. I'm FINished.
    Respect to Ben for concisely explaining this and holding my ADHD brain's attention.

  • @aal3x4
    @aal3x4 Před 4 lety +2

    I just wanna breathe underwater so I can feel like Ariel dammit

  • @Sinamuna
    @Sinamuna Před 11 lety

    I've got a question or two! How thin are bubbles? How strong are they?

  • @MichaelDelPapa
    @MichaelDelPapa Před 11 lety

    Really interesting video. Could or has anyone had more than one heart or two lungs implanted?

  • @tommapar
    @tommapar Před 10 lety

    And what about oxygenated water? Would that be enough to make someone breath oxygen disolved in liquid?

  • @FerGalicia
    @FerGalicia Před 11 lety

    Hey what about water-births? The babies start swimming and stay underwater, but I really dunno how long.

  • @elgranpichiricky
    @elgranpichiricky Před 4 lety

    They could have ommited the first minute and a half because I'm certain none of us was wondering why we can't breathe the oxygen present in the molecule of water. Oxygen in air is nothing else than O2 diluted in a fluid (nitrogen), just as O2 is diluted in water; so if you ask me, saying basically that we can't breathe under water just because gills are different to lungs is a very poor explanation, because everybody knows that already

  • @Kytes93
    @Kytes93 Před 2 lety

    You didn;t mention the important thing about Fluorocarbons and why they failed. It gives you the oxygen, but there's no exchange with CO2, CO2 doesn't go out of your lungs with liquids

  • @lmaobox4068
    @lmaobox4068 Před 5 lety

    one time I was at swim lessons (so in the future I learn how to swim and don't drown) as usual when I went underwater to see a demonstration of a swim technique and then I like went underwater and decided to take a breath so story short I thought my dream physics applied to real life took in a huge inhale underwater and regretted it

  • @SuperRinocicorn
    @SuperRinocicorn Před 8 lety

    2:20 Whales breathe air like us because their evolutionary ancestors never HAD gills in the first place - they were land animals. It also makes sense that gills would not be a viable option for a whale, but that is not why they don't have them. It's really just that that isn't the kind of animal that they are.

  • @ChrisChoi123
    @ChrisChoi123 Před 7 lety +2

    what if some of us can, but they don't know cuz they never tried?

  • @frizky._
    @frizky._ Před 2 lety +1

    it would be cool if we also had gills since we first were fish, so we could breathe above water and under water. but our bodies are dumb

  • @thedisplayname
    @thedisplayname Před 11 lety

    Thanks for watching, JJ!

  • @nedacont2
    @nedacont2 Před 11 lety

    Well done, thank you.

  • @kelpcoo
    @kelpcoo Před 11 lety +2

    attractive chemistry guy teachin me about cool shit. nice.

  • @RhinoXpress
    @RhinoXpress Před 11 lety

    so what if we had 4 lungs instead of two would that be enough mass to absorb the oxygen in the water...

  • @cslance6863
    @cslance6863 Před 9 lety

    Thank you 😊

  • @jacoby310
    @jacoby310 Před 11 lety

    I thought that Carbon Dioxide can't dissolve in water because it is non polar and water is polar?

    • @TGears314
      @TGears314 Před 8 lety

      then what liquid is used in sodas. they're all based on water. sure they have acids mixed in but not carbonated water.

  • @தினவர்த்தகம்

    Can you own breathe after neuromuscular blocking agent

  • @solo22b
    @solo22b Před 11 lety

    awesome video

  • @user-yj1tv6rl9z
    @user-yj1tv6rl9z Před 9 lety

    what about the other Animals that have the ability to breathe both under water and on land?

    • @WhatStef
      @WhatStef Před 8 lety

      +방장군 Some amphibious fish are able to absorb oxygen directly through their skin, be it on land or in the water.

  • @nedacont2
    @nedacont2 Před 11 lety

    Now I'd like an explanation on why fish can't absorb oxygen out of the air since you claimed it's easier to do so.

  • @fbabdiver
    @fbabdiver Před 6 lety

    what about the idea of super oxygenated water

  • @thedisplayname
    @thedisplayname Před 11 lety

    Haha... oh, man. You know what, Jack Skiezo? That's what I asked myself when I first came across it. Still, we want to tackle as many questions as possible. Thanks for watching!

  • @bel8910
    @bel8910 Před 11 lety

    So how would mermaids work? Would they need to be cold-blooded? Is that possible?

  • @ybor363
    @ybor363 Před 10 lety

    I read a sci fi book once where they filled a space ship with a breathable liquid so that the ship could withstand Jupiter's pressure. I didn't know it was actually possible to breathe a liquid but I guess it makes sense, thanks for the vid!

  • @Lysfen
    @Lysfen Před 11 lety

    They are normally still connected with the umbilical cord.

  • @MayraRosas
    @MayraRosas Před 11 lety

    Great video, great info! :-) Thank you!

  • @snakeboy1912
    @snakeboy1912 Před 10 lety

    Could u guys possibly do a question having to do with halo?

    • @BrainStuffShow
      @BrainStuffShow  Před 10 lety +1

      It's funny you mention that. We were just talking about Halo the other day in the office. What would you like us to look into?

    • @snakeboy1912
      @snakeboy1912 Před 10 lety

      Possibly how a MJOLNIR spartan suit works... Or something about slip space.

    • @deathbysuarez
      @deathbysuarez Před 10 lety

      BrainStuff - HowStuffWorks no do it on Evangelion

  • @TheSentientCloud
    @TheSentientCloud Před 11 lety

    "Humans can survive under water... just not for very long."
    --
    Fact Core

  • @arya1752
    @arya1752 Před 4 lety

    I am from India
    This question seems to be stupid and no one answers this
    Thanks to you

  • @hujiko44745278184
    @hujiko44745278184 Před 11 lety

    ill think of a better comment to comment later, either way great videos. :D

  • @nevertoooldfordolls
    @nevertoooldfordolls Před 10 lety

    is it posible? or do you just have to lern to hold your breth insted?
    im tring to be a mermaid

  • @nolaffinmatter
    @nolaffinmatter Před 11 lety

    Theoretically it could one day be possible to take the genes that give fish gills and put them into a human's DNA. But A) You'd have to find and figure out which genes= gills. It won't be all in one place, it'll probably be thousands of little pieces on different genes B) You'd have to figure out how to stitch all those pieces into human dna AND make sure you put them in the right spots, and C) The human cells would have to know how to use the genes once they got them. Probably impossible

  • @whatby101
    @whatby101 Před 10 lety

    Im extraordinary, lets go try this out...

  • @sepehrino
    @sepehrino Před 11 lety

    I don't like the fact that you first use white as oxygen, black as hydrogen and grey as carbon. But later on when you are talking about water you mix everything up.

  • @ReinertZerker
    @ReinertZerker Před 3 lety

    Hey Ben, I'm typing this message to you from inside my giant fish bowl. I managed to breathe the water now Ben, explain that.

  • @dropatrain
    @dropatrain Před 8 lety

    Here's where it gets crazy ... you can!

  • @colebeardshaws4634
    @colebeardshaws4634 Před 11 lety

    Which elements are humans made up of.

  • @danielpierre5219
    @danielpierre5219 Před 6 lety

    Think about it this way. You were in your mother's womb for 9 months and ( I think ) you were in liquid. If you were in there for 9 months with that liquid can't you adapt to it?
    (If you see this comment and say it's a dumb question, Please scroll down )

  • @canthole8050
    @canthole8050 Před 5 lety +1

    I'll get a friend to breath under water. I'll just poke him with a knife on whatever is facing out of water so he'll breath.

  • @zachburke8906
    @zachburke8906 Před 10 lety

    So could we attach a device that separates oxygen from air by the force of us breathing? maybe not enough to keep us alive but enough to use in a 3rd oxygen tank

    • @karlslicher8520
      @karlslicher8520 Před 10 lety +5

      There is a nano-filter respirator nearly ready for market now. Just a facemask with a double filter, and unlimited time underwater until the filters get clogged.

    • @zachburke8906
      @zachburke8906 Před 10 lety

      Thanks :)

  • @AncientHero999
    @AncientHero999 Před 11 lety +1

    This is better then Asap science

    • @malorierose9232
      @malorierose9232 Před 7 lety

      Kai-lee reed olson not true asap is still my fav science channel

  • @fae1magalokreas
    @fae1magalokreas Před 11 lety

    Amen bro ;) Good old Ritsuko Akagi

  • @3ne2nr4life
    @3ne2nr4life Před 10 lety

    isnt this the guy from the 'Stuff they dont want you to know' channel?

  • @Danny8849
    @Danny8849 Před 11 lety

    My cousin died because of your video. He thought he could breath underwater because he was an extraordinary person but instead he drowned.

  • @muhammadaftab7344
    @muhammadaftab7344 Před 7 lety

    almost everybody is posting mean or rude comments

  • @kaitlynkennell7346
    @kaitlynkennell7346 Před 9 lety

    What about the new warm blooded fish could studying this fish help us learn how to breath under water light weight scuba status

  • @theodoros_1234
    @theodoros_1234 Před 7 lety

    Let me prove I can breathe underwater. Here:
    *** drowns ***

  • @theappealtoheaven
    @theappealtoheaven Před 11 lety

    why do have people to ruin the best comments all the time?
    Jealous or something? (jealous is wrong for sure, my english sucks, but it doesn't matter atm,)
    There will be a time, you get your own Top-comment, i am sure dude ;)

  • @iloveguineapig4689
    @iloveguineapig4689 Před 7 lety

    I did that on a axodent once

  • @XmCism
    @XmCism Před 11 lety

    i know all that, but would it theoretically work?

  • @beendere2831
    @beendere2831 Před 10 lety

    Who would try breathing cfc's?!