Dalton's Law

The four laws of gas and pressure are a vital component to your scuba diving education. Boyle’s Law, Charles’s Law and Dalton’s Law are all going to be information’s that you will need to know intuitively while you are diving in order to protect yourself and your fellow divers.

Dalton’s law of partial pressures was stated in 1801 by John Dalton who discovered the information. The Dalton law chemistry is very important to understand as it will attribute to your safety as a diver. The Dalton Law basically says that the pressure exerted by any mixture of gases will be equal to the total of the pressures exerted by each gas individually. In other words most gasses compress in a way that is similar to one another; when you have two or more types of gas combined and pressure is added the two gasses will compress in the same way taking on the same amount of compression. It is safe to say this in important due to the gasses that will be in the equipment you will use every time you scuba dive and the pressure you will be taking on from the waters above you.

John Dalton’s law of partial pressures also is important to scuba divers because it tells us that the body absorbs different gasses the same no matter what the depth of the dive. This information alone will assist you in planning dives, especially sequential dives as well as estimate the levels of gas in your system at all times for the duration of a dive. Another common use for Dalton’s law is oxygen and altitude. Pilots and air travelers are breathing air that is measured by Dalton’s law every time they seek the sky. Dalton’s law is helpful in air travel because of the changing pressure of the atmosphere and the amount of oxygen needed to fill the space in the plane that is inhabited by other people.

When it comes down to it understanding Dalton’s Law can be helpful in any situation where there are more than one gas combined and the pressure is likely to change dramatically. This would mean anything from planes, helicopters, divers and submarines are in need of the knowledge that is behind Dalton’s Law. The most important thing to understand as a diver is not only the law it’s self but to know this information to the point that it simply comes naturally to think about it and compensate for the changes in a calm and composed manner.

Diving is a exciting and amazing sport but you want to be sure to have positive thrills and excitement not alarming ones that can be caused by the lack of education while exploring underwater. John Dalton’s Law along with the other necessary laws are all going to be covered extensively in understandable ways through out any scuba certification class, consider this information just an acquaintance with the law as you will come to be much more familiar with it as you train for your scuba dives.