WEBVTT - Semi Submarines

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com

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<v Speaker 1>where smart happens. Hi. I'm Marshall Brain with today's question,

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<v Speaker 1>what is a semi submarine? So we've all seen submarines,

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<v Speaker 1>and almost always their military submarines, and there's a reason

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<v Speaker 1>for that. Submarines tend to be quite expensive. There's two

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<v Speaker 1>reasons why they're expensive. First, any sealed container full of

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<v Speaker 1>human beings presents problems. You have to deal with the

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<v Speaker 1>oxygen supply. You have to deal with this carbon dioxide removal,

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<v Speaker 1>and you have to worry about humidity from the error

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<v Speaker 1>that we exhale from our lungs. So it takes a

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<v Speaker 1>fairly precise system to keep the oxygen level at about

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<v Speaker 1>You have to have chemical scrubbers that remove all the

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<v Speaker 1>carbon dioxide, and you you need to do something with the

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<v Speaker 1>humidity or you get all this condensation on the inside

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<v Speaker 1>walls of your submarine makes a mess. The second reason

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<v Speaker 1>why submarines tend to be expensive is that when you

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<v Speaker 1>stick that sealed container underwater in the form of a submarine,

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<v Speaker 1>the problems multiply. You have to deal with water pressure now,

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<v Speaker 1>so the container, including its windows, has to be strong

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<v Speaker 1>enough to handle depth and it doesn't take much depth

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<v Speaker 1>to create a lot of water pressure, and then you

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<v Speaker 1>also have to worry about how you're gonna dive and surface,

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<v Speaker 1>So you have to have ballast tanks, and you have

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<v Speaker 1>to be able to fill those tanks with water or

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<v Speaker 1>blow the water out of them. And you have to

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<v Speaker 1>make your container completely leak free, obviously, and that's not

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<v Speaker 1>a simple thing, especially if you're gonna put windows in it,

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<v Speaker 1>and that's why a lot of military submarines don't have

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<v Speaker 1>any windows at all. So what's the solution. What if

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<v Speaker 1>you would like to create a submarine, but you'd like

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<v Speaker 1>the lower the costs so that normal people can afford them,

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<v Speaker 1>One thing you could do is you could eliminate the

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<v Speaker 1>sealed part of the container. Second, you could eliminate the

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<v Speaker 1>problems with pressure by controlling how deep your submarine can

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<v Speaker 1>go and keeping it really shallow. And third, you could

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<v Speaker 1>eliminate the need for diving and surfacing, and therefore you

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<v Speaker 1>can get rid of all the ballast tanks and blowing

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<v Speaker 1>the tanks and everything that has to go with that.

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<v Speaker 1>Almost all the problems go away if you start putting

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<v Speaker 1>these constraints on your submarine. And that's the idea behind

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<v Speaker 1>a semi submarine. A semi submarine lets you, as a passenger,

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<v Speaker 1>ride around underwater, but the depth is very limited. It

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<v Speaker 1>might be six feet at most, and the submerged part

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<v Speaker 1>of the submarine remains open to the air above, so

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<v Speaker 1>you don't have to worry about pressurizing the container or

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<v Speaker 1>keeping the leaks out like you do with a submarine

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<v Speaker 1>that goes down a hundred feet. So here's one way

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<v Speaker 1>to think about a semi submarine. Think about creating a

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<v Speaker 1>small room. Say the size of a closet. It might be,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, four by four ft or four by six

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<v Speaker 1>ft or six by six feet in size, and it

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<v Speaker 1>might be six x or eight feet tall, just like

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<v Speaker 1>a normal closet in your house might be. You make

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<v Speaker 1>that closet out of a sealed container, either out of

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<v Speaker 1>fiberglass or out of steel, and you put great big

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<v Speaker 1>windows in it so that you can see out. Those

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<v Speaker 1>windows don't have to be exceedingly thick, because they're never

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<v Speaker 1>gonna be much more than six or eight feet underwater,

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<v Speaker 1>So you might make them an inch or an inch

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<v Speaker 1>and a half thick if their glass maybe about the

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<v Speaker 1>same if they're made out of acrylic. Now you put

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<v Speaker 1>a couple of comfy chairs in this closet so you

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<v Speaker 1>can sit and look out the windows. And now you

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<v Speaker 1>just have to get this closet submerged in the water

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<v Speaker 1>so that it's underwater but won't sink. And the most

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<v Speaker 1>common way to do that is to put some kind

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<v Speaker 1>of pontoons on top of the closet that will keep

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<v Speaker 1>the top of the closet up out of the water.

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<v Speaker 1>That is the basic configuration for some semi submarines. And

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<v Speaker 1>then you put a couple of electric motors on them,

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<v Speaker 1>or a little um gasoline motor or something so that

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<v Speaker 1>you can move it around through the water. And if

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<v Speaker 1>you're in a nice clear water, say around a coral reef,

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<v Speaker 1>you can paddle around with this with this floating closet underwater,

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<v Speaker 1>and you can see all kinds of stuff because the

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<v Speaker 1>water is nice and clear. You can look and see

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<v Speaker 1>the reef, you can see the fish swimming around the reef,

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<v Speaker 1>and so on. Without ever getting wet, and without ever

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<v Speaker 1>having to worry about scuba equipment or snorkels or anything

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<v Speaker 1>like that. You simply sit in your comfy chair, you

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<v Speaker 1>look out the window, and you steer the boat around

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<v Speaker 1>with some simple steering mechanism. Typically you find semi submarines

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<v Speaker 1>in resort areas. So if you go to Hawaii, for example,

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<v Speaker 1>you can find semi submarines that hold thirty or fifty

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<v Speaker 1>people and you go down below and you're about six

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<v Speaker 1>or seven feet underwater, sitting on a bench or a

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<v Speaker 1>chair looking out great big glass windows that are an

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<v Speaker 1>inch and a half thick. Or you can go to

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<v Speaker 1>resort areas and find little two persons semi submarines that

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<v Speaker 1>you can tool around with on your own. Semi submarines

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<v Speaker 1>were invented in the nineteen nineties and they've been pretty

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<v Speaker 1>popular since their invention. They're popular anywhere where you would

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<v Speaker 1>find things like glass bottomed boats. Be sure to check

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