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"Surface-Floating" Pool/ "Bed Of Water"

Never sink. New swimming experience. Keeps you as high up on surface of the water as desired, perhaps even high enough for you to sleep in the pool on warm nights w/o fear of drowning.
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Water-jets on pool bottom hold up swimmers, and are arranged so they form an overlapping pattern when they reach the surface. They act as a single upward current throughout the pool, holding up the swimmers. If you are worried about the energy costs of this scheme, I think the average upward pressure exerted on a swimmer by this "single upward current" can be as low as 1/4 ounce per square inch, yet support swimmers as well as life jackets can.

However, the above-mentioned water-jet pressure is only an average and assumes swimmers keep their weight evenly distributed across the water. In case they don't, like they try to prop themselves up, sit up, or do other things, I suggest putting electronically controlled valves on the jets, and sensors somewhere in the pool, so as to re-adjust the water-jets' actual pressures appropriately when swimmers start to sink, or prop-up attempts fail to work. This can also save energy costs by turning some jets down, or off, when there is nothing in the water above them.

Of course, in order for this valve-and-sensor scheme to keep any swimmers from sinking, the water-jets would have to be capable of pressures greater than 1/4 ounce per square inch, even if usually held at that low pressure, or lower, by the valves.

Ponce, Feb 15 2017

Space Fountain https://en.wikipedi...wiki/Space_fountain
a loop of string can reach above the atmosphere if you shoot it upward really really fast [sninctown, Feb 17 2017]

[snictown], are you really a fan ? http://www.sharenat...ebook_Become_a_fan/
[normzone, Feb 17 2017]

People adding salt to swimming pools. https://www.theguar...cience_b-gdnscience
I wouldn't just float better, I'd practically levitate right the hell out of the pool. [AusCan531, Mar 02 2017]

[link]






       Why bother with energy-intensive jets? Just increase the density of the water by adding salt (or possibly other stuff) so you float better (a la sensory-deprivation tanks).
neutrinos_shadow, Feb 15 2017
  

       [Ponce], I don't believe my eyes. According to the search tool, you joined up back in 2002, annoed on one idea in 2006, and just now posted your first idea.
normzone, Feb 15 2017
  

       welcome to the halfbakery.   

       while i am a fan, the experience of being sprayed with a high-pressure hose suggests this may be less than restful. the difference is: floating in water exerts even, steady pressure on the body (calming), while jets of water impacting the body exert uneven, varying pressure (not calming. in principle, i see nothing wrong with this, though the practicalities of doing turbulent fluid flow calculations in real time in order to drive a control loop with limited bandwidth (due to water flight time from nozzle to swimmer) may be problematic.   

       a simpler solution would be a single large water blast, which would suck in neighboring swimmers through the bernoulli effect. i suggest this idea be carried to full implemetation in the form of a space fountain, offering scenic experiences of low Earth orbit.
sninctown, Feb 17 2017
  

       There are hydro-massaging units that use a membrane between jets and the massaged. Inverting and modifying such a unit might give the idea substance.   

       With solutes added, can water form multiple boundaries under different pressure streams? I was imagining Macrame with curvy water jets, in a pool of water. The jet streams don't mix because of the different solutes they carry.
wjt, Feb 17 2017
  

       Why DON'T more people with swimming pools put salts in them then float in them? That would be a good question.
Ponce, Feb 19 2017
  

       * In reply to neutrinos_shadow:   

       // Why bother with energy-intensive jets? Just increase the density of the water by adding salt (or possibly other stuff) so you float better (a la sensory-deprivation tanks).//   

       Water jets can create more bouyancy than salts or other soluables. You could even prop yourself up in a water jet pool. You could even lie in the pool facing down. All this would make any "floating pool" more woth it. Might make a nicer place to swim around in, or socialize in.   

       Also, the jets might be cleaner, with fewer problems with chemicals getting into scratches and any sores, and less chance of the pool water making you sick (from swallowing it).   

       Another advantage is that, once the equipment was installed, it would Be more convenient. Just turn the turn the jets on if you want a "floating pool", then if you want to go back to an ordinary swimming pool, just turn them off again. No salts to fool around with, drive to the store for, or store.   

       As for water jets being energy-intensive, I think the cost for power would be 7 to 14 cents (or .7 to 1.4 KWH) per swimmer per 8 hours spent in the pool, assuming my sensor-snd-valve system works as intended. This looks like modest energy use to me.   

         

       * In reply to sninctown:   

       // while i am a fan, the experience of being sprayed with a high-pressure hose suggests this may be less than restful.//   

       I've had some experience with underwater water inlets(jets out of the pool wall) in both swimming pools and Jacuzzis. In cases where the jets did not mix the incoming water with air, the impact was blunted by the pool water so that the jets exerted a gentle, but still powerful, froce that felt good, actually.
Ponce, Mar 01 2017
  

       I would think that the central position where floating occurs would be an inherently unstable zone.
RayfordSteele, Mar 01 2017
  

       //Why DON'T more people with swimming pools put salts in them then float in them? That would be a good question.//   

       People DO. It's not a good question when you really don't want to know the answer. [link]
AusCan531, Mar 02 2017
  

       * In reply to RayfordSteele:   

       //I would think that the central position where floating occurs would be an inherently unstable zone.//   

       I think you are talking about the tendency swimmers would have to slide to where there are no jets, or just slide all over the pool if there is no such place. If so, what if we make the pressure of some of the jets slightly lower than the rest so that swimmers' seats or knees slide to positions just over those lower-pressure jets, pushed there by the normal-pressure jets?   

       To preserve freedom of movement, my valve-and- sensor system (best described in this page's idea entry, rather than in any annotation) could be set up to change which jets get a slightly lower pressure, and which do not, so as to accommodate swimmers' efforts to move about the pool.
Ponce, Mar 04 2017
  

       Hey! Do any of you Halfbakery users and visitors suppose they could create "surface-floating" pools of their own? Perhaps some of you have both the mechanical skills to do so, and the money for the required parts and equipment, as well as swimming pools (I don't have a swimming pool, sorry!). Seriously, What do you think?
Ponce, Mar 16 2017
  
      
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