How deep is 3 bars

by thenewage

How deep is 3 bars and could you use a watch that is limited to 3 bars for any serious diving?

ScubaDivingFanClub Answer:

The answer to your question is: 3bars = 20 meters or 66 feet. And we will not recommend a 3 ATM/BAR watch for serious diving. Now we will explain how we came up to this response.

A French philosopher and scientist named Blaise Pascal demonstrated that the pressure applied by the atmosphere at sea level is equal to the pressure applied by approximately 10 meters / 33 feet. It means that for each 10 meters / 33 feet of sea water, we will have to add 1 atmosphere.

When doing calculation on depth and the pressure we have to take into account that at the surface there is already one atmosphere. And also to get to the measuring system you feel comfortable with you have to know that 1 ATM=1.01 BAR and to make it more simple 1ATM=1BAR.

Continuing with an answer to your question - to take a watch for recreational diving, these watches must be at least minimum 50M/164F or 6 ATM/BAR water resistant.

But I have a little story for you: I was doing a deep dive (30M/100F) with students doing PADI Advanced Open Water, and my diving watch had no battery. I needed a watch just to take the time of the dive and for the mandatory 3 minutes safety stop.

Going to work that day I decided to buy a cheap 100 meters digital watch just until I replace a battery in my diving watch.

Everything went well on the deep dive until we started the safety stop, I looked at that cheap peace of ...100M watch and the crystal was gone, the watch filled up with water and I had to rely on one of my student's watch for the safety stop and dive time.

Most watches have a 200 meters water resistance. I guess the following proverb applied to my purchase: "you get what you pay for".

Thank you for visiting our web site. We hope this answers your question and feel free to send any additional questions or concerns.

Have fun diving, Sincerely:
ScubaDivingFanClub
Where Scuba Divers share their passion.

Some corrections have being made

We would like to thank our "Anonymous” visitor for his/her comment (see comment below). Yes there is some misunderstanding when we were trying to explain Blaise Pascal demonstration of pressure applied by the atmosphere. We will try to clarify and make it easier for our visitors to understand.

A French philosopher and scientist named Blaise Pascal demonstrated that the pressure applied by the atmosphere at sea level is equal to the pressure applied by approximately 10 meters / 33 feet. It means that 10 meters / 33 feet will be equal to 1 atmosphere.

Statement:

It means that 10 meters / 33 feet will be equal to 1 atmosphere.