Drowning math

[doctordetritus]

Off to buy weights. How many lbs would you recommend for someone that weighs a 100 lbs?

 

[locked*n*loaded]

I guess it depends on how strong you are and how long you desire to stay afloat and struggle to stay afloat. I mean if someone attached a 500 lb long, heavy chain around someone's ankle, and then threw the chain off the side of a boat, as soon as the chain became taught with the person's leg, it would pull them right in with it, all the way down to the bottom of the body of water.

On the other hand if you only attach a 10 lb weight to someone's ankle and then push them into the water off a boat, most people would be able to struggle for a while until, eventually, they got tired, succumbed, and, finally, drowned.

 

[doctordetritus]

I see what you mean. I am comically weak. I don't have a car and would have about a 40 minute walk, so I couldn't realistically lug something super heavy. But point taken about 10 lbs. I want to drown ASAP. I think I am going to practice the walk with increasingly heavy weights. Really appreciate your response. Thanks again.

 

[DeIetedUser4739]

Bring some empty plastic bottles with you and fill them up with water from the lake/ocean to use as weights.

 

[Little_Suzy]

I see what you mean. I am comically weak. I don't have a car and would have about a 40 minute walk, so I couldn't realistically lug something super heavy. But point taken about 10 lbs. I want to drown ASAP. I think I am going to practice the walk with increasingly heavy weights. Really appreciate your response. Thanks again.

The way people describe their ctb plans on here is hilarious. It is always how y'all have access to absolutely nothing.

You don't need weights when you are 100 pounds. It is fat that float!

 

[EyesOfNight]

Bring some empty plastic bottles with you and fill them up with water from the lake/ocean to use as weights.

Maybe there is something I'm missing but wouldn't those bottles have neutral buoyancy? I would fill them up with sand or dirt instead.

 

[doctordetritus]

The way people describe their ctb plans on here is hilarious. It is always how y'all have access to absolutely nothing.

You don't need weights when you are 100 pounds. It is fat that float!

I am certainly overthinking it. I just want to really make sure that I am doing this only the once. No mistakes.

Bring some empty plastic bottles with you and fill them up with water from the lake/ocean to use as weights

Bring some empty plastic bottles with you and fill them up with water from the lake/ocean to use as weights.

I like the idea of bringing some empty plastic bottles to be filled up later. thanks. would have never thought of this.

Maybe there is something I'm missing but wouldn't those bottles have neutral buoyancy? I would fill them up with sand or dirt instead.

yeah, dirt is a good idea.

 

[Linda]

The specific gravity of a human body is not very different from 1. It varies a bit from person to person, and also depending on how much air is in your lungs, but basically you dont need to add much weight to make yourself denser than water. If you only weigh 100 lbs, then adding 20 lbs weight would certainly make you denser than fresh water (and probably as little as 10 lbs would do it). In seawater you would need a few lbs more.
If you use only just enough weight to sink, it might be possible to struggle agaist drowning by vigourous swimming. You would die eventually, but it would be a slow and unpleasant way to go. Death would come quicker if you add much more weight than the minimum.

 

[DeIetedUser4739]

Maybe there is something I'm missing but wouldn't those bottles have neutral buoyancy? I would fill them up with sand or dirt instead.

I don't think so, maybe OP can fill one up and test if the bottle sinks before attempting to use as weights.

 

[Alexei_Kirillov]

Ah, finally, my time to shine

I would recommend calculating how much weight you would need if you were made of 100% bodyfat and then use that as your "safety" number. The logic behind doing that is that bodyfat is less dense than muscle, so it will float more easily. Assuming 100% bf will thus give you a number that will for sure sink you.

The formula I use is 1029kg/m3 x (your bodyweight in kilos / 900kg/m3). 1029 is the density of salt water (you may have to adjust for freshwater) and 900 is the density of fat. So if you weigh 45kg, your "safety" number would be 1029 x (45/900) = 51.45kg, meaning you would need to carry at least another 6kg (13lbs) to make yourself sink.

Like I said, the number above is a "safety" number. You could sink with less than that, since you're not 100% bf, but I like to use that formula because you also have to factor in your ability to swim and the fact that your survival instinct will be going crazy and you'll be quite literally fighting for your life to swim back to the surface. So you have to adjust for that. Here's an interesting video about how much weight you can swim with, though it's probably not that relevant to you given your demographic (low weight female).

In addition, think carefully about how to attach said weight to yourself. Even a heavy weight will be useless if you're able to easily and quickly free yourself of it. I also have a somewhat lengthy trip (in my case a bike ride), so I'm using a hiking backpack, since they're pretty much designed for that purpose (carrying weight for a long amount of time). I then created a contraption so that it would be impossible to get the waist buckle off of me, in addition to making the straps very tight and also using zipties.