Gas Laws and the Loch Ness Monster
There is an interesting hypothesis which utilizes gas laws to explain sightings of the Loch Ness Monster. The hypothesis is based on the following observations: the monster has only been sighted near 3 of the 500 lakes in Scotland and these lakes are particularly deep (over 800 ft ) and are surrounded by Scotch pine trees. Scotch pines produce an abundance of a sap which is both somewhat elastic and relatively insoluble in water. When the tree dies, falls into the lake and sinks to the bottom, the high pressure (about 25 atm) forces the sap out of the tree to form a coating. As the tree decays in the absence of oxygen, it produces methane gas which becomes trapped by the sap coating. When sufficient gas has become trapped, its bouyant force causes the log to rise. Since pressure decreases with decreasing depth in water, the trapped gas bubbles continue to expand and the speed of the ascent continuously increases causing several feet of the log to extend momentarily above the surface of the lake. The 25-fold increase in volume (combined gas law or Boyle's Law) causes the sap bubbles to burst and the log again sinks back to bottom where the cycle can start over again. If this hypothesis is right, "Nessie" is nothing more than a decaying Scotch pine tree bouyed to the surface by gas bubbles produced during its decay. [De Lorenzo, R. Journal of Chemical Education , 1989, 66, 570.]
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