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Falling into water

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Toleman | 19:04 Tue 17th Feb 2009 | Science
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Imagine the greatest height it is possible to survive when landing into water.

Would adding washing up liquid to reduce surface tention mean you could fall from higher and how much by?

I obviously understand that it depends on the concentration.

Chris
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I suspect you are already aware that there is no such mathematical formula to work this out, but as we are in science here, it must make some difference however small.

There is a formula to measure surface tension which I don't fully understand, but I do believe that the difference in surface tension between normal warm water and normal cold water is more than between soapy and normal water of the same temperature.

If this is a trick question...... It makes no difference if you dive into a washing machine tub from 10 metres high whether there is soapy water in the tub or just plain water, you're still gonna get splattered.

I doubt it would make very much difference. Force is rate of change of momentum and the surface tension is not a major factor.
The deceleration on hitting the water is largely independent of the surface tension. On the other hand, hitting a foaming, bubbly mass of water would result in a lower force on the body as the rate of change of momentum would be lower.

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