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
Because they’re open at the top, *water can get in*. Now the waders are full of water instead of air, which means they’re much heavier…which means they’re exerting a lot more force on the shoulder straps…which means they’re much harder to pull off, because you can’t budge the straps.
So now you essentially have several gallons of water strapped to your legs that you can’t remove.
It’s like putting your *open* plastic grocery bag into the water – now you have a grocery bag full of water. Now try to lift it up. It’s probably *so heavy* that it splits.
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