• TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Bollocks. Not how electricity works. You put a power cable into swamp water and that electricity is flowing straight into the ground. Nobody who touches the water will get hurt, that’s literally how grounding works. Look into how the earth wire prevents shocks and you’ll see what I mean.

    My dude, all you would have to do is float the end of the power cable…

    Electricity doesn’t automatically flow to the ground, that’s a common misconception. It flows through all available paths, paths of lowest resistance just get higher amounts of the current. Humans are unfortunately a better conductor than swamp water, meaning they would get the majority of the current.

    Again, I don’t think you know as much about electricity as you assume.

    • GiveOver@feddit.uk
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      2 months ago

      I’ve looked it up and all I can find are examples of people drowning because they were near the power source and their muscles spasmed. A far cry from dropping a cable from a generator and instantly zapping hundreds of people. Any other examples?

      • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        because they were near the power source and their muscles spasmed.

        Okay… So you have admitted that people can be electrocuted in large bodies of water, meaning your initial theory was incorrect. Now your dispute is the scale and intensity?

        Wouldn’t that be explained by a power source with a much higher output? Kinda like the several industrial sized generators They described in the article I linked?

        Any other examples?

        How often do you think people have purposely killed people with this tactic?

        I guess you could look up the electrified lock systems they use in the great lakes to kill invasive species? Though I don’t really know why you’re so sceptical?

        • Alto@kbin.social
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          2 months ago

          I’m not sure why this guy’s so reluctant to accept something that sticking a bunch of high voltage cables in a swamp isn’t something Iraq would’ve done in that war. I don’t even mean in a “oh they did immoral things way”, I mean in a “they were basically doing ACME shit the entire war” way.

          Did Iraq probably heavily inflate the number killed? Absolutely. Even if they weren’t trying to, they had tons of barbed wire and floating mines in that swamp, so kinda hard to distinguish what killed who when all you care about is building corpse road. But they also absolutely electrified a swamp during the battle of the marshes, and it absolutely did kill people.

          • GiveOver@feddit.uk
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            2 months ago

            Oh I don’t put it past Iraq, I’m sure they’d have been up for it. I’m just reluctant to accept the physics

            • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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              2 months ago

              I’m just reluctant to accept the physics

              Why?

              I think you are misunderstanding the nature of electrical grounding. If they had laid wires at the bottom of the marsh, then yes it likely would have grounded. However if you float the wires to the surface then the water and the nonconductive particles in the water act as resistors. When the soldier enters the area they act as a conductor, acting as the path of least resistance from the source to the ground.

              It’s pretty basic physics.

        • GiveOver@feddit.uk
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          2 months ago

          Does it count as electrocution if you drown from a shock? Maybe I guess. Looked up the great lakes thing but I’m still not buying it. Never mind, thanks for the internet argument!

          • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            Does it count as electrocution if you drown from a shock?

            I would think the important bit of information is that they were shocked…which according to your theory isn’t possible.

            The only difference between a shock and an electrocution is the voltage. Wiring for a dock as the examples you brought up were likely only from a 120v supply, if it has been 220v or higher they likely would have died from electrocution.

            Looked up the great lakes thing but I’m still not buying it.

            Lol, I guess that what happens when you try appealing to a stone.