The Dive tables reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Dive tables

Dive Tables, Decompression Tables or Tables are printed cards or booklets that allow divers to determine for a particular dive profile and breathing gas, the Decompression stops required for that dive in order to avoid decompression sickness.

With tables, the dive profile is a "square": one axis is depth and the other is duration.

Common decompression tables are:

• US Navy Tables
• Buhlman tables
• BSAC 88 tables
• PADI wheel

Alternatives to traditional 'decompression tables'' are:

• the Dive computer - has the advantages of monitoring the actual dive, as opposed to the planned dive, and does not work on a "square profile" it dynamically calculates the real profile.
• bespoke tables generated by decompression software - represent a diver's specific dive plan and breathing gas mixtures.

This is the "Dive tables" reference article from the English Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.