Diving Bells Worked Before Anyone Understood Why
Diving is descending under water. The diving bell let people work underwater centuries before the physics was explained.
Diving is descending into water, or plunging downwards generally. The diving bell is the oldest practical technique: an inverted container traps air as it descends, because water cannot enter without the air escaping. Aristotle described the principle, and bells were used for salvage work long before anyone could explain gas pressure.
- Descending under water. *Scuba diving.*
- A competitive sport. *Olympic diving.*
- Falling steeply. *A diving aircraft.*
- Feigning a foul (football). *Booked for diving.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | diving | Deep diving. |
| Verb | dive | Dive from the board. |
| Past | dived / dove | He dived in. |
| Person | diver | A commercial diver. |
| Compound | diving bell | An early diving bell. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Dived is British, dove is common in America.Both are accepted.
- The bends is caused by dissolved nitrogen.Coming up too fast.
- He was booked for diving.Football: simulating a foul.
Diving terms
- Scuba — self-contained underwater breathing apparatus
- The bends — decompression sickness from ascending too quickly
- Free diving — descending on a single breath
- Nitrogen narcosis — a confused state at depth
- Safety stop — a pause during ascent to let gas leave the blood
From *dive*, Old English *dufan*, to sink, and *dyfan*, to immerse. Scuba is an acronym coined in the 1950s.
Dived or dove?
Dived is standard everywhere. Dove is common in North America and is now widely accepted there.
What causes the bends?
Nitrogen dissolved in the blood under pressure forms bubbles if a diver ascends too quickly for it to be exhaled.