Our World Under Water 2010 Competition

Water conducts heat around twenty five times more efficiently than air. Hypothermia, a potentially fatal condition, occurs when the human body's core temperature falls below 35 °C. Insulating the body's warmth from water is the main purpose of diving suits and exposure suits when used in water temperatures below 25 °C.
Sound is transmitted about 4.3 times faster in water (1,484 m/s in fresh water) as it is in air (343 m/s). The human brain can determine the direction of sound in air by detecting small differences in the time it takes for sound waves in air to reach each of the two ears. For these reasons divers find it difficult to determine the direction of sound underwater.