Structure of the Oceans

Imagine that a friend and you decide to have two swimming races: one race in seawater, and the other race in freshwater. Who do you think would win? Before you say, "Well, of course I would!" consider how density changes according to depth, temperature, and salinity. Now, who do you think would win? The answer is, it depends...

Given what you just learned from the article, consider the following questions:

• In which type of water might you both record faster race times? Why?
• How might swimming at different depths (assuming you had appropriate SCUBA gear) affect your race times? Why?