Scuba divers must carry specialty equipment that allows them to breathe underwater however, often overlooked is the equipment that allows them to navigate comfortably. a scuba diver in cool waters must wear an insulated wet or dry suit, which is usually composed of neoprene and contains about 40% air by volume. the diver also wears a weight belt, to compensate for the buoyant force of the equipment and diver. at the surface of the body of water, this provides the diver with neutral or slightly negative buoyancy, and contributes to a controlled descent. if the neoprene suit occupied 4 liters on land, approximately how many moles of air would need to be added to the buoyancy compensator to maintain neutral buoyancy at a gauge pressure of 1 atm? a 3.4/22.4 b 1.6/22.4 © 11.2 one of the challenges of scuba diving is achieving 'neutral buoyancy,' or the ability to remain at a constant depth with little or no effort. as the diver descends to extreme d 22.4 depths, the temperature of the water typically drops. even in shallow dives, the diver occupies less volume as depth increases. to alter this trend, the diver carries a special, hollow, inflatable bladder called a buoyancy compensator. the diver can add or remove air from the buoyancy compensator by inhaling and exhaling. specialized valves can be used to achieve the same ei progresses, because the diver - or more precisely, the diver-equipment system - tends to develop a slightly positive buoyancy explanation the air in the neoprene initially occupied atm (remember, total pressure is atmospheric pressure plus gauge pressure). using boyle's law, we know that the new volume of air in the suit is 0.8 l. therefore, we require 0.8 l of air from the buoyancy compensator, which would be 0.8/22.4 moles at 1 atm of pressure. since the pressure is twice as high (2 atm) we require twice as many moles of gas, or 1.6/22.4. choice (b) is therefore the correct answer l (40% of 4 the new pressure is 2 in addition, removing air becomes necessary as the dive over time.