Tossing a charged Capacitor in the Bathtub

Most people know that dropping a cord or appliance that is plugged into
an outlet into a bathtub filled with water will electrocute the person
in the tub. Yet, you can drop a low voltage item such as a flashlight
with batteries in the tub and no one will be hurt. Even a set up jumper
cables connected to a car battery would not likely do anything, or might
just tingle a little (never tried this, but I've handled plenty battery
cables while standing on wet soil in wet shoes and never felt a thing).

Not that I'm planning to test this, but what would happen if a large
capacitor, charged with 200 volts or more was tossed into a filled
bathtub while someone was in the tub? (By large capacitor, I dont mean
the size, but rather, I mean a large capacity, such as 500 MF or one
Farad or more....).

I see no reason this would ever occur, but I'm just curious.

[NOTE: This could be DC or AC]. DC capacitors are used in electronics,
while the AC type are motor start capacitors.

AC caps don't contain any energy, when you take them out of the circuit.
They only function while the device is running.

DC cap would not contain enough energy to do much. And the power would short
terminal to terminal, not terminal to ground.

Short answer (ha ha), is not much.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.

<jw@myplace.com> wrote in message
news:qvk5i7l6v5islcdpufr80hlfco5i1g11jl@4ax.com...
Most people know that dropping a cord or appliance that is plugged into
an outlet into a bathtub filled with water will electrocute the person
in the tub. Yet, you can drop a low voltage item such as a flashlight
with batteries in the tub and no one will be hurt. Even a set up jumper
cables connected to a car battery would not likely do anything, or might
just tingle a little (never tried this, but I've handled plenty battery
cables while standing on wet soil in wet shoes and never felt a thing).

Not that I'm planning to test this, but what would happen if a large
capacitor, charged with 200 volts or more was tossed into a filled
bathtub while someone was in the tub? (By large capacitor, I dont mean
the size, but rather, I mean a large capacity, such as 500 MF or one
Farad or more....).

I see no reason this would ever occur, but I'm just curious.

[NOTE: This could be DC or AC]. DC capacitors are used in electronics,
while the AC type are motor start capacitors.

You could write a good murder mystery about this. Like most of the MacGuyver
episodes, the science would be worthless, but the story could be fun.

Miss Marple finds the murder weapon: a charged high voltage capacitor taken
carefully from the high voltage section of an old television and...... and
the murder was shocking.

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
.

<jw@myplace.com> wrote in message
news:qvk5i7l6v5islcdpufr80hlfco5i1g11jl@4ax.com...
Most people know that dropping a cord or appliance that is plugged into
an outlet into a bathtub filled with water will electrocute the person
in the tub. Yet, you can drop a low voltage item such as a flashlight
with batteries in the tub and no one will be hurt. Even a set up jumper
cables connected to a car battery would not likely do anything, or might
just tingle a little (never tried this, but I've handled plenty battery
cables while standing on wet soil in wet shoes and never felt a thing).

Not that I'm planning to test this, but what would happen if a large
capacitor, charged with 200 volts or more was tossed into a filled
bathtub while someone was in the tub? (By large capacitor, I dont mean
the size, but rather, I mean a large capacity, such as 500 MF or one
Farad or more....).

I see no reason this would ever occur, but I'm just curious.

[NOTE: This could be DC or AC]. DC capacitors are used in electronics,
while the AC type are motor start capacitors.

On Jan 27, 11:530am, j...@myplace.com wrote:
Most people know that dropping a cord or appliance that is plugged into
an outlet into a bathtub filled with water will electrocute the person
in the tub. 0Yet, you can drop a low voltage item such as a flashlight
with batteries in the tub and no one will be hurt. 0Even a set up jumpe=
r
cables connected to a car battery would not likely do anything, or might
just tingle a little (never tried this, but I've handled plenty battery
cables while standing on wet soil in wet shoes and never felt a thing).

Not that I'm planning to test this, but what would happen if a large
capacitor, charged with 200 volts or more was tossed into a filled
bathtub while someone was in the tub? 0(By large capacitor, I dont mean
the size, but rather, I mean a large capacity, such as 500 MF or one
Farad or more....).

I see no reason this would ever occur, but I'm just curious.

[NOTE: This could be DC or AC]. DC capacitors are used in electronics,
while the AC type are motor start capacitors.


Maybe, just maybe, if it was a *flux capacitor* you would
be transported back in time before you asked such a silly
question...

~~ Evan

On Jan 27, 11:530am, j...@myplace.com wrote:
Most people know that dropping a cord or appliance that is plugged into
an outlet into a bathtub filled with water will electrocute the person
in the tub.

That's how it works in the movies. In reality, to be
electrocuted the person in the tub would have to be
in the path of enough of the current to kill them. That
depends on many factors. At one extreme, if the
appliance went into one end of the tub near a ground
source like perhaps the drain, while the person was
standing in the other end, not touching anything else, it's unlikely
they would be electrocuted.

On the other hand, if you're holding a grounded faucet
with one hand and trying to pick up the appliance that fell
in the tub with
the other, that's a lot more likely to produce a bad result.

As for a cap, since the current path would be from one
terminal to the other, it's unlikely enough current would
make it through anyone's body in the tub. Unless they
were grabbing the cap....

On Jan 27, 4:530pm, j...@myplace.com wrote:
Most people know that dropping a cord or appliance that is plugged into
an outlet into a bathtub filled with water will electrocute the person
in the tub. 0Yet, you can drop a low voltage item such as a flashlight
with batteries in the tub and no one will be hurt. 0Even a set up jumpe=
r
cables connected to a car battery would not likely do anything, or might
just tingle a little (never tried this, but I've handled plenty battery
cables while standing on wet soil in wet shoes and never felt a thing).

Not that I'm planning to test this, but what would happen if a large
capacitor, charged with 200 volts or more was tossed into a filled
bathtub while someone was in the tub? 0(By large capacitor, I dont mean
the size, but rather, I mean a large capacity, such as 500 MF or one
Farad or more....).

I see no reason this would ever occur, but I'm just curious.

[NOTE: This could be DC or AC]. DC capacitors are used in electronics,
while the AC type are motor start capacitors.

There are too many factors to be certain. The voltage drop appears as
a series of overlapping "rings" There is a chance they could get a
shock.

On Jan 27, 11:530am, j...@myplace.com wrote:
Most people know that dropping a cord or appliance that is plugged into
an outlet into a bathtub filled with water will electrocute the person
in the tub. 0Yet, you can drop a low voltage item such as a flashlight
with batteries in the tub and no one will be hurt. 0Even a set up jumpe=
r
cables connected to a car battery would not likely do anything, or might
just tingle a little (never tried this, but I've handled plenty battery
cables while standing on wet soil in wet shoes and never felt a thing).

Not that I'm planning to test this, but what would happen if a large
capacitor, charged with 200 volts or more was tossed into a filled
bathtub while someone was in the tub? 0(By large capacitor, I dont mean
the size, but rather, I mean a large capacity, such as 500 MF or one
Farad or more....).

I see no reason this would ever occur, but I'm just curious.

[NOTE: This could be DC or AC]. DC capacitors are used in electronics,
while the AC type are motor start capacitors.

I don't know what will happen when you toss it in the water, but I
know what will happen when a dead man stick is used to short the
terminals of a large cap charged up to 7 or 8 KV DC.

A dead man stick is a device with a wooden handle with a hooked rod
threaded into the handle and a braided strap with a clip on the end.
It was used to both ground towers and other electrical equipment or to
pull an energized human from said equipment.

At a minimum, shoting out the cap will cause a bang and a spark that
is sure to strike fear into the hearts of most mortal men. In some
cases, it will blow 4 inches of threaded rod out of the hardwood
handle.

We used to do it quite often when I was in the Coast Guard as training/
warning exercise.

We had large oil filled caps (5F) that ran at 15 - 20 KV DC in the
LORAN transmitter buildings. We didn't want non-Transmitter Techs in
the building without one of us present. As new men would arrive at the
station, part of the orientation meeting included a demo where we
would use a Hi-Pot to charge up a cap to at least 5KV DC, turn out the
lights and then short it out with a dead man stick. One time we went a
bit overboard with the Hi-Pot and I was left holding a smoking hard
wood handle while my buddy retrieved the metal rod from across the
room. We grabbed another dead man stick and still got quite a bang out
the cap since it didn't completely discharge before blowing up the
other dead man stick.

That one even scared me!

On 1/27/2012 11:53 AM, jw@myplace.com wrote:
Most people know that dropping a cord or appliance that is plugged into
an outlet into a bathtub filled with water will electrocute the person
in the tub. Yet, you can drop a low voltage item such as a flashlight
with batteries in the tub and no one will be hurt. Even a set up jumper
cables connected to a car battery would not likely do anything, or might
just tingle a little (never tried this, but I've handled plenty battery
cables while standing on wet soil in wet shoes and never felt a thing).

Not that I'm planning to test this, but what would happen if a large
capacitor, charged with 200 volts or more was tossed into a filled
bathtub while someone was in the tub? (By large capacitor, I dont mean
the size, but rather, I mean a large capacity, such as 500 MF or one
Farad or more....).

I see no reason this would ever occur, but I'm just curious.

[NOTE: This could be DC or AC]. DC capacitors are used in electronics,
while the AC type are motor start capacitors.

AC will kill as it causes fibrillation. DC will cause 1 pulse. That
said, voltage levels, conductivity of the water will determine what will
happen. But probably because the 2 poles are so close and the capacitor
is not referenced to ground like the plugged in radio, as others said,
current will go between the 2 capacitor leads. You will, with DC from
the capacitor, produce hydrogen and oxygen bubbling off the 2 leads.

On 1/27/2012 11:53 AM, jw@myplace.com wrote:
Most people know that dropping a cord or appliance that is plugged into
an outlet into a bathtub filled with water will electrocute the person
in the tub. Yet, you can drop a low voltage item such as a flashlight
with batteries in the tub and no one will be hurt. Even a set up jumper
cables connected to a car battery would not likely do anything, or might
just tingle a little (never tried this, but I've handled plenty battery
cables while standing on wet soil in wet shoes and never felt a thing).

Not that I'm planning to test this, but what would happen if a large
capacitor, charged with 200 volts or more was tossed into a filled
bathtub while someone was in the tub? (By large capacitor, I dont mean
the size, but rather, I mean a large capacity, such as 500 MF or one
Farad or more....).

Well there is one hell of a difference between 500mf and 1 farad.
Although 1 Farad 5 volt caps have become quite small, one rated at 200
volts might bludgeon them to death if it hits them in the head, charged
or not.


I see no reason this would ever occur, but I'm just curious.

[NOTE: This could be DC or AC]. DC capacitors are used in electronics,
while the AC type are motor start capacitors.

Lots of AC rated caps are used in electronics.