merrill@rex.DEC (01/31/85)
< i think i'll take a crack at this > Not having firsthand experience at swimming in liquid helium I can only make a guess that said liquid, while capable of floating my body, would indeed be difficult to swim in since it would be a pure neutonian fluid: composed of teney-tiney balls that have nearly zero viscosity and hence cannot transmit sheer shear forces. Therefore no vortices, no boundary layer effects, etc. making it very difficult to swim in, even if you had hands, MUCH less only tentacles! Since it is unlikely that there were any waves, nor any currents your friend would have floated in a straight line and would have made a four-point or eight-point landing and could have pushed off again in a straight line. Luckily your friend is cooolllllldddd blooded, otherwise his body heat would have vaporized the fluid and he would have been "KAPOOTED" straight back the way he enter the lake! rmm