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.”
For a moment I thought he would have expressed concern about the effects of such a battery on the fragile ecosystem and the endangered species in it. But no, all he did is combine his ignorance about electricity and sharks to formulate this moronic thought.
He mentioned his “relationship with MIT” as well just before spewing out that gem. Was that really him trying to sound smart?
His uncle John Trump was a professor at MIT. Somehow that makes him a genius and gives him a relationship to MIT.
I also have a physicist relative connected to a prestigious institution and I’m a moron.
I mean he inherited everything he owns. He must be thinking that knowledge works the same way.
Ironically, by being aware that you are a moron, you are no longer a moron.
Well I’m sure as hell not a physicist. I didn’t even finish college.
Edit: How did I manage to bring that up twice in one thread?
It you were a physicist, you could read minds and tell the future!
… or is that those doctors?
I know someone who saw Neil Armstrong once,which pretty much makes me the moon.
“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.”
Hear me out: Put Trump in a leaky electric boat in shark-infested waters. For science.
Edit: He’s still painted black from last time, so it’s harder for the sharks to see him.
Goddamn this motherfucker is stupid. I bet his audience ate that shit right up and then asked for more.
This guy could suddenly rupture a brain aneurysm and you wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference.
Of course you’d be able to tell, he’d finally shut up
Only one way to be sure and I think it’s an experiment worth doing.
It’s a shame that Mythbusters isn’t around to turn this into a shark week special. I’m pretty sure the myth would be busted and the only risk would be of the batteries catching fire after the shark bites one.
Meanwhile, if you sink boats with combustion engines full of oil and fuel it’s super safe and actually really pleasant for the boater and the environment. /s
And the shark too.
This reboot is already worse than the 2016 original.
The writers expected the 2016 original to end with a loss and a montage of all the wacky adventures up to that point, but when the miniseries got approved for a full 4 year run they had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for ideas. Now the reboot comes around and they’re looking for scraps discarded on the writer’s room floor.
But can you use nuclear weapons against an electric sharknado?
Yes, but they’re not always effective. You should really use the ultimate weapon- a sharpie. So powerful it can divert a hurricane!
Sharpies just make hurricanes travel farther inland.
i want to name a band electric sharknado now
That was a very long way to say electric boats are bad because they’re preferable to sharks.
He had to dumb it down, apparently
I think he dumbed it up
The Trump version of man or bear
This is probably a stupid question but would a battery even electrocute you in the water?
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.
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.
Yeah, just maybe don’t touch the battery in the water, alright?
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.
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.
you’re right. voltage differential takes the shortest path(s), so it’ll just discharge itself p quickly. you are effectively isolated unless you’re in between the terminals
Don’t car batteries contain strong acid? Before jumping into the bathtub I’d want to make sure that the battery isn’t leaking.
It says EV battery (because politics), rather than a traditional 12v car battery. The latter is usually lead acid, while the former is usually lithium-ion (LiFePO4 or Li-NMC)
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.
Is lithium+water similarly explosive as sodium+water?
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.
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.
Thanks for the explanation
I’m a college dropout, so I’ll believe you.
People do sometimes get electrocuted in fresh water, but only when a boat in a marina has shore power (120V) and a bad connection of the hot side into the water. This can only occur with shore power, because otherwise the circuit can’t leave to boat. It also doesn’t occur in salt water because salt conducts electricity better than the human body.
An EV battery might have enough voltage, but the current would prefer to travel directly from - to + on the battery itself. You would have to literally get in the way of that for it to affect your body. Most situations where that could happen, such as touching the electrodes directly, would be almost as dangerous even when you are dry. And again, salt water would conduct it much better than your body, therefore bypassing you, as long as you don’t get in the way.
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)
Guy would cover himself in food
The guy IS food
Man. Women. Camera. Person. Shark.
It’s surprising, I’d thought he would be team shark. But I’m glad he’s finally answering all the important questions.
"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.”
Creaks
