Would it be possible to swim in a pool of jell-o? Or would it be possible to dive in and swim back up?

Question

Well, a bunch of my friends have been having debates over swimming in Jell-O. Mainly we argue about what would happen if you dived in from a high-dive of a pool. Some people say that the jell-o is too thick, some say the jell-o would break up as you worked your way up, making it easy for you to get up, some people think you would just go a little bit deep, then stop, someone thinks that you could walk on it, someone else thinks that yu could lay on top of it... And I'm looking for an answer. Mainly an answer with evidence of some sort. thank you

Answer 1

I think that it is too think;

so it would break when you dived and you probably wont go that far....

if you were really light you could probably walk on it..

Answer 2

jell -o pool?

Answer 3

Ah, the great Jello Pool debate... Many drunken nights have been spent discussing this, including one this past Saturday with my family... There are, in my opinion two main questions to be answered to decide this... First, can you penetrate the pool enough to sink your entire body below the surface. I argue that, yes, even in the case of diving feet first, you would sink below the surface. I base this upon the fact that Jello, though VERY elastic, looses massive structural integrity once the surface tension is broken. I contend that once you break the surface. you would then create a split that would not offer enough resistance until well after you were submerged...

The second question becomes, if we are to assume that you can in fact sink below the surface, would you be able to swim in the jello, or would the struggle cause the jello to fall apart and you would sink, much like in quicksand. Again, I speculate that the movement of your arms trying to swim would break apart the jello, not allowing enough energy to compensate for the resistance of the rest of the jello holding your body in place. Plus, this movement would cause further break down of the jello around you causing you to sink minimally further into it...

Absolutely no evidence to back this, just theories based on several years in culinary school, MANY years enjoying jello, and long debates with Engineers in my family that have a much better understanding of physics than I...

Answer 4

If you can't what a way to go.

Answer 5

i think it would crumble up but you can't swim back up. jello isn't water. it'll just break. smart friends you've got.

Answer 6

well i think you would slip right through when you were diving in, but then once you got to the bottom, you couldn't "swim" up  because it would be way too thick, and you would basically get stuck, because the jello isn't the right texture, at all, lol to do that. And you couldn't walk on it! But probably lay on top of it!!

Answer 7

I dont have any evidence, since I dont think I've heard of anybody trying to swim in jello, but I do have a theory. Think about what happens when you put a spoon in jello. It slices right through. But then, you have to apply leverage to pull out a piece. So if you dived into a pool of jello, you would slice right through (like the spoon) but you wouldnt have any leverage to swim back up. You could probably fight your way up by kicking and separating the jello by force as you went up, but you'd need scuba gear because it would take too long for anybody just holding their breath. You wouldnt be able to breathe the whole time. But if you cannonballed in, thats different. I think, if you do a cannon ball, you're gonna sink straight down, and you could swim back up using the path you just made by cannonballing. And I think you could probably lay on it, if you slowly rolled off something level to the jello surface. But walking, that would be too much sudden weight, and your foot would slice through the jello, and then you're stuck with one leg stuck in jello, probably doing the splits because you've sunk to your hip and your other leg is still on top of the jello.  Wow. I never realized so much thought could be put into swimming in Jello, lol.