Aquatic Exercise Flashcards

A person whose body has a specific gravity less than 1.0 will do what when immersed in fresh water?

Answer: Float

Objects less dense than water (specific gravity below 1.0) float because buoyant force exceeds their weight.

Which statement best describes buoyant force according to Archimedes' principle?

Answer: It equals the weight of the fluid displaced and acts upward

Buoyant force is an upward force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the immersed body.

Hydrostatic pressure on a submerged limb increases primarily with:

Answer: Depth of immersion

Hydrostatic pressure is proportional to fluid density and depth, so deeper segments experience more pressure.

A patient floating supine rotates until which two points are vertically aligned?

Answer: Center of gravity and center of buoyancy

A floating body rotates until the center of gravity and center of buoyancy lie on the same vertical line.

A therapist wants to increase resistance during shoulder horizontal abduction without changing water depth. Which change is most effective?

Answer: Add webbed gloves or paddles

Increasing the surface area moving through water, or the speed, raises drag resistance.

Because of water's viscosity, doubling the speed of a movement generally results in:

Answer: A marked increase in resistance

Drag rises with velocity (approximately the square of speed in turbulent flow), so faster movement meets much more resistance.

Compared with air, water conducts heat approximately how many times faster?

Answer: 25 times

Water's thermal conductivity is about 25 times that of air, so body heat is lost or gained rapidly.