Out of the two, which ability would you rather have? The ability to fly or the ability to breath underwater?

[AlicornSpell 146]

Imagine being able to fly as high in the sky. And imagine being able to breath underwater without an oxygen tank. Which out of the two would you rather have?

[Steve Piranha 29,424]

Fly. I’m sure I can do more by flying rather than breathing underwater 

[Savy 5,077]

Fly. I want to be able to fly anywhere I want, and feel nice fresh air.

[Tao 7,765]

Thats a hard given I live in the great lakes...

 

Fly   I could just go and save on gas! 

[TheRockARooster 51,349]

I’m gonna go with flying and I can visit my friends from all over the world.

[Pearly Marshmallow 399]

To me, flying is like a dream come true.

The amount of money I would save on my way to school... 

[Dreambiscuit 9,794]

I’d rather fly, by far! Sure, it would be fun to check out the realms of the deep unhindered by an oxygen tank, but let’s face it, there’s nothing more thrilling than dancing on the clouds and seeing the world from the lofty heights, at least to me. So I’m taking the high road, so to speak.  

[Fluttershutter 2,476]

Flying would be more fun and useful.

[TBD 17,254]

I love being in the water and being able to breath in water would be like the greatest gift to have. I want to swim in the ocean and isolate myself in the depth of the ocean with the coral reefs and  the fishes without any worries about drowning. 

[Sunset Rose 254]

If breathing underwater also came with some measure of pressure resistance at deeper depths then I'd definitely prefer that over flying. But honestly they're both really neat to imagine.

[Sparkly sparks 512]

Even if you could breath underwater, you'd still have a whole mess of other problems to deal with
allow me to list them

1. Fluid density
water is way more viscous and sticky than air, it's going to be hard to just casually move through it as if you were going on a stroll through a meadow
the highest speed reached by a human swimmer is 8.13 km/h (by David Holmes Edgar)
and the average human swimming speed is less than half of that

2. Water in your stomach
human breathing is done by inhaling air into you lungs and extracting the oxygen

so I'm just going to assume underwater breathing is done via lungs because no gills were mentioned in the question

this point is totally invalidated if you meant gills

the reason we can't drink saltwater (which is about 3% salt), is because it dehydrates us more than it hydrates us
so you'd have to make sure not to swallow when you inhale a sweet sweet lungful of saltwater

otherwise you'd just end up with a stomach-full of undrinkable water

3. Water in your lungs
specifically; salty, germ filled water

this point is also null if the underwater breathing comes with gills and an affinity for life underwater

the salty water is going to suck some water from your mucusy, soft, high-surface area lungs. every time you take a breath
and I imagine its gonna be pretty tricky to try and take in any new water while submerged in saltwater in all directions

saltwater is also full of germs, that go into your lungs every time you breathe

 

and don't even get me started on water pressure...

 

 

also imagine just floating menacingly with the ability to fly
instead of using it casually, you just bust it out when you want to assert dominance

I pick the ability to fly

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

17 hours ago, Sparkly sparks said:

Even if you could breath underwater, you'd still have a whole mess of other problems to deal with
allow me to list them

1. Fluid density
water is way more viscous and sticky than air, it's going to be hard to just casually move through it as if you were going on a stroll through a meadow
the highest speed reached by a human swimmer is 8.13 km/h (by David Holmes Edgar)
and the average human swimming speed is less than half of that

2. Water in your stomach
human breathing is done by inhaling air into you lungs and extracting the oxygen

so I'm just going to assume underwater breathing is done via lungs because no gills were mentioned in the question

this point is totally invalidated if you meant gills

the reason we can't drink saltwater (which is about 3% salt), is because it dehydrates us more than it hydrates us
so you'd have to make sure not to swallow when you inhale a sweet sweet lungful of saltwater

otherwise you'd just end up with a stomach-full of undrinkable water

3. Water in your lungs
specifically; salty, germ filled water

this point is also null if the underwater breathing comes with gills and an affinity for life underwater

the salty water is going to suck some water from your mucusy, soft, high-surface area lungs. every time you take a breath
and I imagine its gonna be pretty tricky to try and take in any new water while submerged in saltwater in all directions

saltwater is also full of germs, that go into your lungs every time you breathe

 

and don't even get me started on water pressure...

 

 

also imagine just floating menacingly with the ability to fly
instead of using it casually, you just bust it out when you want to assert dominance

I pick the ability to fly

breath under water means you can inhale air underwater breathing means "act of putting oxygen to the body....

may it be lungs or gills.

so if no gills then the power would be you can breath "air" under water. because our lungs cannot breath water.

so having problems with salt water entering your lungs is null. for your ability to breath under water would not allow that.

your problem with breathing under water is do you want to be in the ocean? the pool is fine but if you explore the rivers or ocean..... there's alot of creature out to kill you.

while flying... the only thing that can kill you is speed.

so for me I think flying is safer..... just not near airports and certain heights

 

[Flying Pencil 3,024]

Flying for sure. Its safer than the sea. The sea has water pressure and predators. While I won't fly near airports or certain heights. Plus, flying sounds so much fun.

[EpicEnergy 23,218]

I'd rather fly because it sounds more awesome!

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

8 hours ago, Flying Pencil said:

Flying for sure. Its safer than the sea. The sea has water pressure and predators. While I won't fly near airports or certain heights. Plus, flying sounds so much fun.

the water pressure ain't the problem though.... once you feel it, common sense would kick in....the question is will you be able to reach that depth before something tries to eat you.

[Splashee 28,564]

Both of those conditions as options, but only one benefit and that is to not have an oxygen tank? How would you be allowed to fly? Super powers? Getting wings? How about being transformed into a bird?

 

The water one, at least you don't need to carry an oxygen tank around But you will still have oxygen in your lungs? So holding your breath then? Can I use that ability over land as well, or even out in space? Will I be able to live in deep space because I don't need to breathe? That sound like a better deal than flying?

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

8 minutes ago, Splashee said:

Both of those conditions as options, but only one benefit and that is to not have an oxygen tank? How would you be allowed to fly? Super powers? Getting wings? How about being transformed into a bird?

 

The water one, at least you don't need to carry an oxygen tank around But you will still have oxygen in your lungs? So holding your breath then? Can I use that ability over land as well, or even out in space? Will I be able to live in deep space because I don't need to breathe? That sound like a better deal than flying?

that depends though XD. the sun would kill you in space though XD. and vacuum would have a factor.XD. 

let's say you have a suit. for the sun. vacuum is you problem in and out of your suit. thus oxygen has porpuse not only for breathing but to counter pressure.

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

ability to fly by wind manipulation! the solution to all! this way you can breath  properly in pressurized areas like under the sea and high into the vacuum.

make a wind vessel.

Edited November 30, 2021 by Kujamih

[Splashee 28,564]

6 minutes ago, Kujamih said:

that depends though XD. the sun would kill you in space though XD. and vacuum would have a factor.XD.

The coldness of deep sea wouldn't affect this breathing under sea deal either! So many issues to work out before it becomes a reward to breathe under water without an oxygen tank.

 

So let's turn our attention to flying. It was clearly the winning option (I checked the poll, actually I didn't need to). So flying means you can walk on air, right? How about not freezing to death or get pressure problems as well? And what about radiation from the sun at those altitudes? How about breathing with less oxygen per square meters?
How do one walk on air? How do one ground themselves after taking off? So many questions???

[Evil Pink One 13,506]

22 minutes ago, Splashee said:

The coldness of deep sea wouldn't affect this breathing under sea deal either! So many issues to work out before it becomes a reward to breathe under water without an oxygen tank.

 

So let's turn our attention to flying. It was clearly the winning option (I checked the poll, actually I didn't need to). So flying means you can walk on air, right? How about not freezing to death or get pressure problems as well? And what about radiation from the sun at those altitudes? How about breathing with less oxygen per square meters?
How do one walk on air? How do one ground themselves after taking off? So many questions???

this reminded me of someone in YouTube XD. do you want teleportation powers? or super speed?

[Sparkly sparks 512]

3 hours ago, Splashee said:

Both of those conditions as options, but only one benefit and that is to not have an oxygen tank? How would you be allowed to fly? Super powers? Getting wings? How about being transformed into a bird?

 

The water one, at least you don't need to carry an oxygen tank around But you will still have oxygen in your lungs? So holding your breath then? Can I use that ability over land as well, or even out in space? Will I be able to live in deep space because I don't need to breathe? That sound like a better deal than flying?

for flying, I just imagined being able to self levitate via telekinesis
as there were no extra body parts specified in the question

and the water breathing is just described as "the ability to breathe underwater"
imagined that like this:

Quote

if submerged=true
then drowning enabled=false

because nothing was mentioned besides breathing while underwater

[Twilight Sparkle97 402]

I would rather have the ability to breath underwater. Love the sea creatures, coral reefs and sand. 

 

I would like to fly, but there are obstacles flying in the air already. Birds, airplanes and helicopters are always in the air at anywhere, anytime. 

[honk friend 1,978]

On one hand, flying is really cool and I'd love to be able to do it.

On the other hand, I am extremely scared of water and drowning, so it'd be nice to eliminate that threat from my life entirely.

[Clawdeen 14,207]

While I’m terrified of heights flying would save me on gas money

[Kitty_Cat 376]

Honestly this would be much easier for me to answer if I didn't have phobias of both sides, but I went with flight. It seems more useful, and I'm less afraid of heights than water, though with water-breathing, I wouldn't have to worry about drowning, which is why I'm afraid of water....