Discuss the questions.
1 What sorts of jobs require diving, or what industries need divers to carry out work?
2 What do you know about the physics of diving ?
3 What force on a diver increases as he goes deeper into the water?
Read the text and answer the questions.
1 What industry does José’s company support?
2 What two main areas of work does José deal with?
3 What two types of safety does José talk about?
4 What are the two main chemicals in air?
5 Why is nitrogen a problem for divers?
Would you like to do José’s job? Why / why not?
José Martinez
hydrostatic compression reduces.
In addition to keeping divers safe, I also work on the
Of course we have the usual safety issues of
working around machines — winches for lifting
equipment, pumps for moving water from one place
to another, etc. But diving safely requires a detailed
understanding of how the human body responds to
hydrostatic pressure.
Divers breathing compressed air (7g% nitrogen,
21% oxygen) can work for a few minutes at a depth
of 3O metres, but the pressure at depth affects the
gases in their body. A dive that’s too long and too
deep is dangerous. The main problem occurs with
nitrogen,
6 What mix of gases do they breathe for deep dives?
7 What’s the deepest José’s divers go?
8 Why do divers need to resurface slowly ?
9 What dangerous situation with airbags does José mention?
10 How did he become interested in diving?
airbags to lift things from the bottom of the sea which
involves calculating buoyancy, hydrostatic pressure,
and drag. Of course the bag must be buoyant enough
to raise an object, but not too buoyant. Too much lift
means the object rises too quickly.
My diving started as a hobby, and getting a diving
job was a dream come true. But diving every day is
really, really hard work. Now I’m happy spending
most of my days on the boat. Of course being in the
water is more exciting, but I love using my
experience as a diver to keep my team safe and get
the job done.