Honey I shrunk the cups
“The sea once it casts its spell holds one in its net of wonder forever.” --- Jacques Cousteau
Every oceanographer shrinks styrofoam cups at one point or another. We did our shrinking today at the equator. The water depth was 5250 meters, or 17250 feet deep, which is deeper than Mount Rainier is tall (14,411 feet). We colored our cups and sent them down to the depths along with cups from Jaqui's husband's middleschool class. All the cups came back safely and were pressurized so much that the air bubbles in the styrofoam were completely crushed. Several of us made cups in the shape of an octopus, or more appropriately named a multipus since they had many more than eight legs. Let's call it a new species.
In the ocean, pressure increases about one atmosphere for every 10 meters of water depth. At a depth of 5,000 meters the pressure will be approximately 500 atmospheres or 500 times greater than the pressure at sea level. That's a lot of pressure to put the cups under!
“The sea once it casts its spell holds one in its net of wonder forever.” --- Jacques Cousteau
