Water temperature and buoyancy?

[andygates]

Am I going mad, or is warm water more buoyant?

I ask because I was in Scotland at the weekend and they don't believe in anything soft like warm water up there, the pool was refreshingly cool and I was riding noticeably lower in the water.

I was also having a touch of my traditional open-water breathing problem, which makes me wonder whether all this stuff - the breathing and the sinking - isn't about *open* water but about *cool* water.

So am I bonkers? Or is this all well-known?

Baffled of Devon

[younggun]

5C change in temperature makes about 0.1% change to the density of water - so no, the buoyancy isn't changing significantly.

More likely the cold water was making you stiff muscularly and that was effecting your stroke?

[trex]

Or are you soft?

I've always found it easier to swim in cold water, hot water just makes me want to pull up an inflatable donut and sit in it.

[andygates]

Hot water is all snuggly, and I am definitely a Southerner softer than puppy sh!te But knowing that the science isn't on my side, I shall valiantly go out into the freezing wet just as soon as it freezes.

Bugger - I've got a New Year's Day surf booked. That should do it

[jel]

Doesn't count in pool but if a river runs into a bay the often colder freshwater pools and is much less bouyant.

[levoleurdefruits]

sounds soft to me

[belaqua]

trex said:

hot water just makes me want to pull up an inflatable donut and sit in it.

That's kinda hard to envisage with that 'o' face going on.