Question: would it be easier to swim on the bottom or top of the swimming pool

Angela Stevenson answered on 12 Nov 2013:

Hi Ciara! It’s a great question and really has me thinking! Lets examine this: when I m swimming at the surface of the pool my body wants to sink to the bottom… because I m heavier (or denser) than water – we call that being negatively buoyant. When I m at the bottom of the pool though, I find it really hard to stay there because my body wants to float up. So what’s going on here? Its the air in your lungs thats not letting you stay down…think of your lungs like a balloon, if there’s air in the balloon, and you try putting the balloon at the bottom of a pool, its just going to float up, just like you do when you re at the bottom. So which is easiest? definitely swimming at the surface or top of the swimming pool! At least there you can breathe too while at the bottom you constantly have to fight to stay down AND you can’t take breaths (sounds like hard work already!). Hope that helps! Great question 🙂