Tossing a charged Capacitor in the Bathtub
On Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:09:02 -0800, "Bill"
wrote:
wrote in message
...what would happen if a large
capacitor, charged with 200 volts or more was tossed into a filled
bathtub...
Pure water does not conduct electricity.
You are going to bet your life on that untruth / half truth.
Pure water containing no ions is an excellent insulator, but not even
"deionized" water is completely free of ions. Water undergoes
auto-ionization in the liquid state. Further, because water is such a
good solvent, it almost always has some solute dissolved in it, most
frequently a salt. If water has even a tiny amount of such an
impurity, then it can conduct electricity readily, as impurities such
as salt separate into free ions in aqueous solution by which an
electric current can flow
If minerals or chemicals in the water, the capacitor would slowly
discharge. Still a poor conductor.
If sal****er, it would discharge quickly! Better conductor.
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