Hydrostatic Pressure Explained (Or Why Charlie Shouldn't Have Died)

We’re all familiar with that scene where Charlie was in the Looking Glass and Mikhail turned up with a grenade and water poured in and Charlie drowned. If you’re oblivious to this it was covered in my previous post. So you’ve no excuses to claim ignorance.

Now this scene does break the laws of physics. More specifically, it breaks the law of Hydrostatic Pressure. That’s right. Just those two words alone will get you either hard or wet depending on your sex, I know. Try to calm your arousal.

But for those that are perhaps unclear about how Hydrostatic Pressure works, and how it specifically got ignored in Lost, I’ve put together this awesome guide. It’s got ace graphics, too, that I drew all by myself.

I did this because I am awesome. And with a quick read of this you’ll be awesome too. You’ll know all about Hydrostatic Pressure and this knowledge, my friends, is guaranteed to get you laid. So let’s get to it.

Figure A


A graphical representation of Charlie in The Looking Glass communications room with Mikhail looming at the porthole window.

Figure B


Mikhail detonates his hand grenade prompting water to surge into the communications room and drown Charlie. This defies the principle of Hydrostatic Pressure.

Figure C


The principle of Hydrostatic Pressure can be simply explained using an experiment you can try at home. Take an ordinary basin and fill it with water.

Figure D


Take an ordinary empty glass.

Figure E


If the glass is turned upside down and dunked into the basin of water you will observe that the interior of the glass is not filled with water. Rather an air pocket is created.

Figure F


We can re-create the ‘Looking Glass incident’ by drilling a hole in the submerged glass. Doing so will prompt water to pour into the glass, but only up to the point where the hole is. The air pocket will shrink, but Hydrostatic Pressure will not allow the volume of water to rise above the entry hole.

Figure G


Let’s take the glass/basin experiment and apply it to the Looking Glass and communication room. Depicted above is the scene between Charlie and Mikhail as the grenade is detonated and a hole is blasted in the porthole.

Figure H


This time the laws of Hydrostatic Pressure are applied to the scene, and we can now see what really ought to have happened. The water level would have risen to the entry point of the water – the blast point – which would have afforded Charlie a small pocket of air that he could have swam up into and survived in.

So. Now you know. You feel sexier already, don’t you, y’little Lost-loving bastards!