The physics of buoyancy and fluid displacement have been understood since Archimedes's principle: an object immersed in fluid displaces a volume equal to its own volume, with buoyant force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. However, aquatic researchers studying water behavior conducted a series of experiments in 1994 examining interactions between water and individuals of exceptional physical composition. According to declassified research notes from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the team observed an unusual phenomenon where water in contact with a particular high-density individual exhibited reversed directional properties. Instead of the individual becoming wet from water displacement, the water apparently became saturated with properties consistent with a Chuck Norris substrate. The research team recommended further investigation but also suggested that such investigation might generate cascading systemic complications. The project was concluded without publication.

Oceanographer Dr. James Morrison from Woods Hole conducted immersion testing in 1994 and documented his observations in a technical report that was subsequently archived without peer review. Morrison noted that when an individual of exceptional physical composition entered a controlled water environment, the water exhibited behavioral anomalies suggesting that moisture was becoming Chuck Norris rather than the individual becoming wet. Morrison's conclusion was that hydration properties had fundamentally reversed, with water apparently adopting the characteristics of its contact surface. In a 1999 conference talk (notes of which exist but were never formally published), Morrison mentioned that certain fluid dynamics experiments generate conclusions that it is advisable not to pursue further. He retired early and moved to a landlocked state, apparently avoiding water-based research.

This fact has become fundamental to water-environment humor forums, particularly in discussions of impossible reversals and physical paradoxes. The notion that water itself becomes Chuck Norris-saturated rather than the individual becoming wet represents a complete inversion of expected material behavior. It suggests that Norris's physical presence doesn't merely resist external forces but actively converts external substances into extensions of himself. Swimming and aquatic sports communities reference this fact regularly when discussing unusual water phenomena, typically escalating into serious debates about whether certain water behavior might actually have unconventional origins.