Hello,
Around my area, it’s well known that if you are wearing duck waders, you never get into a boat and go out deeper than your height. It’s because if you fall out of the boat, essentially the waders fill up with water and will sink you and you have no chance to remove them.
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I guess I’m confused on how this is possible since waders are open at the top. I don’t understand how they could ‘get heavier’ I guess. I understand why like, water balloons sink in a tub of water. That’s because of the resistance from the surrounding latex essentially making the water inside the balloon more dense than the surrounding water. I guess i just have a hard time understanding with an open top.
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It would be like a plastic grocery bag in the water, wouldn’t it? Sure, it would be harder to move and you would have more drag, but my understanding is you sink like a cinder block.
In: Physics
It’s a myth. You can look up videos on YouTube of people testing it. You won’t sink like a cinderblock.
It could make swimming/getting back into a boat much more difficult, so if you were out on a big lake stranded trying to swim to shore could be an issue.
But you won’t sink like a cinderblock. It would just be like wearing any other heavier clothing.
Vid of someone testing it:
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