Electricity And Water

 November 15th, 2011
physics
If someone throws an extension cord into the water right next to me, I understand I'm probably going to be electrocuted. If they throw it in the water a mile away, I'm probably not. What determines the dangerous distance from the power cord? Is it a sphere with its center at the cord's end and its radius the distance to the ground? Is it different in salt water? Does the voltage, or the capacity of the wire matter? Is DC (lightning) different?

Comment via: google plus, facebook, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Coping with shame

[Mod note: comments on this post about how I’m a good person who should feel better about myself will be deleted.

via Thing of Things August 4, 2026

Using AI to analyze life patterns

If you’re anything like me, you may have a lot of notes from various introspective activities – annual / monthly reviews, worksheets, therapy notes, etc. Often these notes are just gathering dust in a paper folder or some forgotten corner of Google Drive.…

via Victoria Krakovna July 30, 2026

Exercises in benchmarking and evals, part 7: DeepSWE, Senior SWE-Bench, napkin math, and winter tires

This is part of a series of exercises on benchmarking, evals, and experimental design (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)1. We're going to look at three questions, which are presented before the answers to give you time to think about the questions before seeing the a…

via Posts on July 23, 2026

more     (via openring)