YoyomaBones

Electric puddles -- are they really all that dangerous?

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It seems to be relatively common in games to come across a puddle of water on the ground that has somehow been electrified, typically by a broken live power cable that is lying in the water. When the player, or an enemy, enters the water they receive an electric shock, usually with serious consequences. This has never made sense to me.

The reason it doesn't make much sense is that electricity will only through an object if there is a voltage difference between the two points of contact. This is why birds can sit on power lines unaffected -- both of their feet are at the same voltage, so electricity does not flow through their body. Another way to say this is that there's far less resistance for the electricity to flow through the wire than through the bird. Of course, if a really long boa constrictor wound itself around a power line while still touching the ground, electricity would flow from the high voltage power line through the snake and into the ground, and it would die instantly.

All this seems to indicate that if I were to jump into an electric puddle, then, since both my feet are at the same voltage, no electricity would flow through me and I'd be fine. Or, looking at it from another viewpoint, it's really easy for the electricity just to keep flowing in the puddle rather than through my body, from one leg to the other. Needless to say, I'm not about to test this in real life.

There is, however, one way that this sort of thing could be a real problem. Imagine an electrified puddle of water on some non-conducting surface, like a rubber or plastic floor. If I were to stand in the water and then touch a metal pole with my hand, or some other object connected to the ground, then electricity would flow up my legs, out through my arm, into the pole and then to ground, and I would suffer a serious shock. But that's never the situation presented in games.

Has anyone else thought about this? I'd really like to find out if games have been misrepresenting the laws of physics in this way. If so, I'd love to see a game where walking in an electrified puddle didn't cause the player any harm, but it the notion "electric puddle = bad" seems so thoroughly ingrained that I don't think there's much chance of changing this.

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Good question. It seems like an electric puddle would still be dangerous if you stepped into it with one foot still on the ground outside of the puddle, but maybe if you jumped in with both feet at once, you'd be okay?

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Test it by connecting a 9V battery to a small puddle (teaspoon?). Then touch the puddle with your tongue.

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Though it might seem complicated, the physics of electricity is really quite simple: it's a malevolent force that lives in fuse boxes and dangling wires, and travels across water and metal. Usually electricity periodically emits small sparks, which is useful when trying to avoid it. Known insulators are wooden crates or trying to jump over it. Learn more about electricity on Wikipedia.

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I think an under-appreciated aspect of Minecraft is that it made lava - and fire in general - SO much more dangerous than it usually is in video games. I remember one of the first times I walked by some exposed lava in the game and being all accustomed to weak-ass lava, was incredibly shocked when an ember flew off, landed on me, and set me on fire. I then stumbled in fiery confusion, fell into the lava pit and died. It was awesome.

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The hilarious thing about that story is that Minecraft doesn't have a scripted "stumbling in confusion" state, which means you were so immersed in the role-playing experience that you mashed the arrow keys around, or just immeadiately ran forwards.

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Haha. That reminds me of Team Fortress Classic, which had the most panic-inducing effect ever when the Pyro set you on fire: loads of little flames burning all over the screen so you couldn't see a fuckin' thing, meaning you inevitably madly flailed around trying to get away from enemies until it wore off.

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The reason it doesn't make much sense is that electricity will only through an object if there is a voltage difference between the two points of contact. This is why birds can sit on power lines unaffected -- both of their feet are at the same voltage, so electricity does not flow through their body. Another way to say this is that there's far less resistance for the electricity to flow through the wire than through the bird. Of course, if a really long boa constrictor wound itself around a power line while still touching the ground, electricity would flow from the high voltage power line through the snake and into the ground, and it would die instantly.

All this seems to indicate that if I were to jump into an electric puddle, then, since both my feet are at the same voltage, no electricity would flow through me and I'd be fine. Or, looking at it from another viewpoint, it's really easy for the electricity just to keep flowing in the puddle rather than through my body, from one leg to the other. Needless to say, I'm not about to test this in real life.

The feet in the puddle is more similar to the boa constrictor example than to the bird example. With the bird, you have a tiny voltage difference between the point of the wire where the bird's left foot is touching, and the point in the wire where the right foot is touching. (different because the electricity is being transmitted in a sine wave, and one part of the leg is at a different point in the wave than the other)

With the puddle, you have 110 volts(or 220 in some parts of the world) coming from the exposed wire and looking for ground by whatever means it can find. The puddle is basically a wire. And if your feet are wet and in the puddle, your feet are basically wires too, so electricity will travel up your leg a little ways until eventually your body's resistance stops it (This will hurt.)

The difference between the two scenarios is difference (voltage difference).

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I love this topic. Eventually I think it will be my purpose in life to fling myself into a spike pit—for science.

Now... let's talk about lava. Is it hot, or does it just kill you?

Being anywhere near lava is dangerous! So video game depictions are very unrealistic. Even Minecraft gives you more leeway than you'd get in real life. If you stood even further away than youmeyou, you'd probably suffocate in a closed space.

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I was a bit disappointed the first time I came across lava in Guild Wars 2. I quickly realised I could run through it, and even stand in it, without being hurt in the slightest. But this was starting-area lava, and perhaps end-game lava is more dangerous.

On a related note, what is the liquid that floods rooms in Portal and Portal 2? It seems to kill very quickly, so perhaps it's supposed to be acid, but I can't recall if this is ever made explicit. It always looked like dirty water to me and I could never understand why it was quite so fatal.

If it's acid, why isn't it fluroescent green and bubbling, like acid is in real life?

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I think in Portal it's toxic waste. There's almost definately an Aperture-official explanation for it somewhere.

Haha. That reminds me of Team Fortress Classic, which had the most panic-inducing effect ever when the Pyro set you on fire: loads of little flames burning all over the screen so you couldn't see a fuckin' thing, meaning you inevitably madly flailed around trying to get away from enemies until it wore off.

I'd like a shooter to incorporate GTA 4's drunk mode in some way. GTA 4 had the best drunk mode, you QWOP'd about so realistically that it was funny every time.

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