Your Brain Without Oxygen

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
You know when the flight attendant tells you that, in case of emergency, you need to put your mask on before trying to help someone else? This is why. Even though we've all heard about it, it's strange to actually watch someone suffer from the effects of Hypoxia, even if it is in a controlled environment.
 
That's crazy....I didn't realize it could happen that quick.....10 seconds.
 
For your average person, they more than likely will have many issues including the panic which just wreaks havoc with rationality, but that's why people like Dustin and others train for such situations - and also why he makes such videos. While I've never flown and probably never will, it sure as hell doesn't hurt to have the knowledge now on the process. Sure most everybody that has actually flown on commercial or even some private aircraft have seen the demos and heard the instructions to put on their masks but most just ignore it when that instruction is passed along. I'll bet that if vastly more people saw this video their attitudes would probably be changed by the information it presents.

As noted in the video, at the altitude most commercial airliners travel when cruising, those ~10 seconds easily could mean life or death for you so definitely get that mask on ASAP so you can provide assistance to those around you as required (if you ever find yourself in such a situation, of course).
 
He went from being in control to not even realizing he was in trouble real quick and subltly. nice video
 
For those who fly this is a must-watch video. Thanks for posting this, Steve. Getting smarter every day.... unless... beer. :p
 
It's amazing that he had no idea at the moment on how to correct the problem. How to simply push his mask back on.
 
Good video, but they were being a bit aggressive trying to declare their conclusion even before the evidence supported it.

Like when he is putting the shapes in the holes. The "shape" of the holes is 2-dimensional, so it makes perfect logical sense to refer to the shape of the objects based on 2-dimensions also. Instead what we have is the guy saying "It's a circle" but then they reply "It's a cylinder!". A few seconds later he refers to a square object as a "Square", and they reply "It's a cube!". I really don't see this as evidence of anything other than lame testing procedure. Seems to me that it took almost 4 minutes before he was clearly becoming mentally impaired, and even then only about the equivalent of someone who is pretty drunk, not to the point where he simply couldn't function.

I don't disagree with the statement regarding putting your own mask on first, but how does him being mostly just fine for 4 minutes prove that taking a handful of seconds to put your kid's mask on first is dangerous? 4 minutes is probably enough time to put masks on half of the people in the plane.
 
Last edited:
GotNoRice said:
Good video, but they were being a bit aggressive trying to declare their conclusion even before the evidence supported it.

Like when he is putting the shapes in the holes. The "shape" of the holes is 2-dimensional, so it makes perfect logical sense to refer to the shape of the objects based on 2-dimensions also. Instead what we have is the guy saying "It's a circle" but then they reply "It's a cylinder!". A few seconds later he refers to a square object as a "Square", and they reply "It's a cube!". I really don't see this as evidence of anything other than lame testing procedure. Seems to me that it took almost 4 minutes before he was clearly becoming mentally impaired, and even then only about the equivalent of someone who is pretty drunk, not to the point where he simply couldn't function.

I don't disagree with the statement regarding putting your own mask on first, but how does him being mostly just fine for 4 minutes prove that taking a handful of seconds to put your kid's mask on first is dangerous? 5 minutes is probably enough time to put masks on half of the people in the plane.
Click to expand...

I got the impression that they were giving him a hard time about the shapes early on, like the cylinder and cube. They weren't implying he has being affected at that point.

Also they were at 25,0000 feet. He said at 35,000 feet (common flying height), that you have 15-30 seconds instead of 4 minutes.
 
MrTroy03 said:
I got the impression that they were giving him a hard time about the shapes early on, like the cylinder and cube. They weren't implying he has being affected at that point.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I remember being corrected about it when I was very young.

I don't disagree with the statement regarding putting your own mask on first, but how does him being mostly just fine for 4 minutes prove that taking a handful of seconds to put your kid's mask on first is dangerous? 4 minutes is probably enough time to put masks on half of the people in the plane.
Click to expand...

As troy pointed out, planes are higher. And as the video pointed out, chances are if you ever have to deal with it, it will be an explosive decompression. Either way you only have seconds to react.
 
Tiberian said:
For your average person, they more than likely will have many issues including the panic which just wreaks havoc with rationality, but that's why people like Dustin and others train for such situations - and also why he makes such videos. While I've never flown and probably never will, it sure as hell doesn't hurt to have the knowledge now on the process. Sure most everybody that has actually flown on commercial or even some private aircraft have seen the demos and heard the instructions to put on their masks but most just ignore it when that instruction is passed along. I'll bet that if vastly more people saw this video their attitudes would probably be changed by the information it presents.

As noted in the video, at the altitude most commercial airliners travel when cruising, those ~10 seconds easily could mean life or death for you so definitely get that mask on ASAP so you can provide assistance to those around you as required (if you ever find yourself in such a situation, of course).
Click to expand...

I haven't paid attention to preflight instructions in years, I'm usually enjoying a preflight beverage these days, as long as the front cabin has a decent flight attendant they just serve it in plastic cups for takeoff ;).

That said, if there is a sudden loss of cabin pressure it's probably 50/50 (at best) it won't matter either way.
 
Dam i was looking forward for him to pass out and die.

I owe you a hamburger

what a joke
 
That O2 stuff is important.
ASN Aircraft accident Boeing 737-31S 5B-DBY Grammatikos

Helios' Boeing 737-300 5B-DBY underwent maintenance on the night prior to the accident. The pressurization system was checked, but after completion of the tests the Pressurization Mode Selector (PMS) was reportedly left in the "Manual" position instead of the "Auto" mode.
Total: Fatalities: 121 / Occupants: 121
Airplane damage: Destroyed
 
It is important to know that many of these events start with the word "sudden". We hope you make it out alive, but if you don't we won't hold it against you or think any less of you.

There was also an incident in the 70's where an airliner collided with a vulture at about 35,000 feet. Amazing that any large animal could actually live at that altitude (and happen to be in the same spot as an airliner :( )
 
Informative!

Important point that most people probably didn't get to:


Says you only have 15s to 60sec of consciousness. Although seems extremely low, when you can try exhaling and see how long you can last without oxygen then.
 
So, in about 4 minutes, you go from being a perfectly rational person to becoming Sylvester Stallone.

"Idyunwannadah!"

Hell, I'm gonna wear an oxygen mask ALL the time now!
 
sleepeeg3 said:
Although seems extremely low
Click to expand...
Holding your breath is entirely different than a depressurization scenario. The drop in pressure literally sucks the gasses, in this case oxygen, out of your blood instead of pumping it in like normal, that's why the time to death drops precipitously as you increase in altitude. The lower the air pressure the faster you lose the oxygen reserve in your blood.
 
Also, another thing.

When you hold your breath, you know that discomfort you feel that gradually get stronger until you can't hold it anymore? That's due to build up of CO2, not a lack of O2. If you can exhale CO2 (as you can in the explosive decompression scenario), you won't feel much before you pass out.
 
while this video is informative there are things to take into account.

even if you are at 35,000 feet, odds are this. A. the cabin slowly loses pressure in which you have a while until you have to get your mask on, the rate of the loss of pressure will determine time. B the cabin instantly looses compression you have seconds to get your mask on.

The problem with B, is that that usually means parts of the plane are missing entirely, you will also freeze to death even if you have your mask on, and if you don't freeze to death, you probably won't survive the impact into the ground/water. Realistically only A is survivable.
 
Is odd I was even watching a video on high altitude balloons the other day when it was a new thing and how it related to early astronaut training a bit.

A couple of French men in the 1700's were a couple of the first people to get to 40000 feet I think, it may have been lower. They almost passed out and died at the time but managed to bring the balloon down.

Is why there is a kill zone mountain climbing on Everest, once you get above a certain height your body will start dying without supplemental oxygen.
 
Last edited:
MongGrel said:
Is odd I was even watching a video on high altitude balloons the other day when it was a new thing and how it related to early astronaut training a bit.

A couple of French men in the 1700's were a couple of the first people to get to 40000 feet I think, it may have been lower. They almost passed out and died at the time but managed to bring the balloon down.

Is why there is a kill zone mountain climbing on Everest, once you get above a certain height your body will start dying without supplemental oxygen.
Click to expand...

it's actually a catch 22. There is plenty of oxygen at the top of everest to breathe, as long as you can maintain a base pressure of 1 atm. The problem is pressure, boyle's law states that as pressure goes down volume goes up. Your lungs cannot move enough volume of air to extract the needed o2. You don't really run out of o2 to breathe until you're at around 300,000 feet. Again if you're in a bubble that can maintain 1 atm.
 
ebduncan said:
it's actually a catch 22. There is plenty of oxygen at the top of everest to breathe, as long as you can maintain a base pressure of 1 atm. The problem is pressure, boyle's law states that as pressure goes down volume goes up. Your lungs cannot move enough volume of air to extract the needed o2. You don't really run out of o2 to breathe until you're at around 300,000 feet. Again if you're in a bubble that can maintain 1 atm.
Click to expand...
I'm sure that is true, is why airliners have pressurized cabins to begin with.

I'm far from an expert in atmospheric pressure, but the same holds true for deep sea exploration and the crushing pressures involved there.

The human body just can not function properly if certain parameters are altered too far, why NASA and DRAPER and various organizations study these things for future space travel, etc.

Aviation Medicine was created for that purpose to begin with.
 
ebduncan said:
while this video is informative there are things to take into account.

even if you are at 35,000 feet, odds are this. A. the cabin slowly loses pressure in which you have a while until you have to get your mask on, the rate of the loss of pressure will determine time. B the cabin instantly looses compression you have seconds to get your mask on.

The problem with B, is that that usually means parts of the plane are missing entirely, you will also freeze to death even if you have your mask on, and if you don't freeze to death, you probably won't survive the impact into the ground/water. Realistically only A is survivable.
Click to expand...

B definitely is rare, but at the same time. It can happen. Aloha Airlines Flight 243 is the biggest one I even remember reading about. Alaska Airlines Flight 536 is one that was more recent. The survivable ones at least.

I still think it's important to learn to put the mask on before helping others. In the off chance that I am on one of such plane, I don't want to be dead or suffer brain damage.
 
I love his face at the peak of his oxygen depletion. Raise your hand if you've met people who indeed look and behave like this. Dat dumb smile is both scary and funny
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top