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From: mwg@petrus.UUCP (Mark Garrett)
Newsgroups: net.sci
Subject: Re: Question about Electricity
Message-ID: <662@petrus.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 30-Oct-85 11:47:18 EST
Article-I.D.: petrus.662
Posted: Wed Oct 30 11:47:18 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Nov-85 03:17:17 EST
References: <621@hlwpc.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc
Lines: 13

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> If you put a live electrical wire into a large
> swimming pool, what happens to the current?

This is just an educated guess but, I would think that the current
would flow from the point of the end of the wire to the ground in
a quickly widening cone.  Since the electons repel each other, the
main current would take up as much of the conductor as it can while still
having some component in the direction toward the ground.  In addition,
there might be eddy currents all over the place, especially if it is
AC or (worse) lightning, which is why you would probably get electrocuted
no matter where you were in the water.
-Mark