Donald Trump on Sunday weighed in on the crucial issue of whether he would rather be electrocuted by the battery of a sinking ship or jump in the water to face a shark. The answer may surprise you.

In a soliloquy on batteries for electric vehicles, including ships, he pondered what would happen if such a boat were to sink and the battery would submerge.

…

“It must be because of MIT, my relationship with MIT, very smart, I say, what would happen if the boat sank from its weight, and you have this tremendously powerful battery, and the battery is now underwater and there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there,” he said as MAGA supporters listened intently. “By the way, a lot of shark attacks lately. Did you notice this? A lot of sha…”

…

“So there is a shark 10 yards from the boat, ten yards… or here,” he said. “Do I get electrocuted if the boat is sinking, water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking? Do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted, or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted?”

…

“He didn’t know. He said: ‘Nobody has ever asked me that question.’ I said, ‘I think it’s a good question. I think there is a lot of electric current coming through that water,’” Trump said. “But you know what I would do if there is a shark or you get electrocuted? I’ll take electrocution every single time.* I’m not getting near the shark.”

  • Twinkletoes@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    5 months ago

    This is probably a stupid question but would a battery even electrocute you in the water?

    • Nightwatch Admin@feddit.nlEnglish
      2·
      5 months ago

      Asking because you don’t know is not stupid. Cooking up the absolute bottom of pseudoscience interspersed with gobbledygook about your relative-inherited intellect is so massive… now that is stupidity.

    • batmaniam@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      I agree with the “no” assessment, but also need to drop the bit of trivia that sharks are really sensitive to electricity. There was a guy making a shark detterent belt that you hit a button and it gave a small zap. Guy would cover himself in food, have the shark barreling right at him, hit the button and it does a 180.

      That being said, it probably was really low current but high voltage (like a static shock), I don’t know if sharks care about a low voltage battery stack.

      (bonus fun fact: that sensitivity is why hammerhead are the way they are. With those sensors further apart you get more spatial resolution, like a radar array. It’s also why they wag there head over the floor; they’re sweeping for electrical signals of their prey)

    • Naich@lemmings.worldEnglish
      1·
      5 months ago

      No. Sea water is pretty conductive so most of the current would just go between the terminals. You would get some eddy currents further out, but not far. If you are in the water with broken bits of boat around you, you’ve got bigger problems than worrying about the batteries.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      In the ocean? No. In the bathtub? Depends on the battery and what’s attached to it when it hits the water, I guess. A car battery with the jumper cables on it thrown into a large enough bathtub to hold it? I wouldn’t get in there.

      • pezmaker@programming.devEnglish
        1·
        5 months ago

        No expert but do have an electronics degree and somee EE theory courses later in life. I don’t think much would happen. Don’t be a direct bridge across the terminals yourself and I don’t think there will be much of an issue being in the same body of water as a battery with even close proximity.

        But I could be very wrong.

        • manucode@infosec.pubEnglish
          0·
          5 months ago

          Don’t car batteries contain strong acid? Before jumping into the bathtub I’d want to make sure that the battery isn’t leaking.

          • pezmaker@programming.devEnglish
            0·
            5 months ago

            That’s a good point, and lithium batteries get sparky when the lithium gets exposed. In the boat example I’m not going to worry too much about lead acid batteries, if they leak it should dilute quickly. Honestly unless punctured, I’m not going to worry about the lithium batteries really either. You typically find out about punctures in those rather quickly. Like before the water is the issue.

              • LordGimp@lemm.eeEnglish
                0·
                5 months ago

                Yes but no. Chemically pure lithium reacts vere energetically with water. The stuff in batteries reacts too, but it’s more like an unextinguishable toxic hellflare than an explosion. Pretty sure the batteries just keep burning under the water until the lithium is all gone.

                • ch00f@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  5 months ago

                  I don’t think they’ll burn under water. The main reason battery fires are hard to extinguish is because at high temperatures, metal oxides in them decompose and release oxygen gas. So you can’t extinguish the fire, but you can try to cool it down.

                  This deck on the NASA website illustrates that very little oxygen is released from a single cell

                  Per this video:

                  So, as long as the temperature is hot enough, the batteries can just keep reigniting unless you use thousands of gallons of water to bring the temperature down to the point where that can’t happen.

                  Submersing it in the ocean would probably cool it very quickly and put it out.