silly thought

[A6D9]

We all know that water will conduct electricity, right.

now does anyone know if it conducts it better then cooper?

i was thinking rather then spenign all that $$ on wires to bring our power down the tower and to our bateries, why not use a garden hose with 2 caps on it filled with water or some other solution that may conduct electricity better?

put 3 hoses up to the tower find a way to get a bus bar on both ends and let the electricity flow?   might be a problem for our colder climate ppl, but is anythign wrong with this logic?

[ghurd]

Actually water does not conduct electricity.  The impurities cause it to conduct.

It is still not a very good conductor.

The general concept probably comes from deaths related to electricity and water.  

My condensed understanding may miss a few points...  The water near the skin is contaminated with salts from sweat, making a fairly decent connection.  The volume of the water makes for a relatively low resistance, like resistors in parallel.  The voltage drop is low due to small current flow, and the couple hundred milliamps needed to cause death can flow.

G-

[asheets]

Pure H20, in any of its allotropes, states, phases, and isotopes, is poorly conductive of both electricity and heat.  Impurities, such as Fe or Cl in solution, increase conductivity at the cost of phase change temperature, pH, and reactivity.

If you attempt to pass electricity through water at low wattage, water has near infinite resistance.  At higher wattages of DC, electrolysis occurs -- liberating ionic consitituents that have high potential energy and low activation energy (i.e. explosive).  At higher wattages of AC, corrosion of the holding chamber occurs, which increases as the water increases in both pH and temperature.  Depending on the contaminant, you can get a variety of dangerous, smelly, rusty, corrosive, and just plain nasty stuff

[A6D9]

ok so water is out, but any other liquid or is this just what the title says?  a silly thought.

thanx for clearign that up for me tho.   really makes sence

[asheets]

I would think that any compound or element that has an allotrope that is conductive in a solid state would also be conductive in liquid state (and potentially conductive at high pressures in a gaseous state).  The most common ones are the solids in periods 1, 8, 11, 12, and some of 2, 13, and 14 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table) -- the malleable metals.  That leads to the question about why anybody would bother liquifying them for electrical transmission.

Mercury  (which are liquid at room temperature) is conductive as a liquid, but a semiconductor in one of its solid aamalgams.  It has uses in gravity switches and the like.  But there are too many disadvantages for use in large-scale electrical transmission, but does have plenty of uses in quantum electronics (CFL, neon, and argon lights, for example) in all 3 phases.

Bismuth can be made liquid at slightly above room temperature, and has the advantage of being naturally diamagetic.  It is a semi-conductor, though.

[alancorey]

Many of the things that you can dissolve in water to make it conduct also make it corrosive.

One conductor I think is too often overlooked though is the Earth itself.  This varies by location and moisture content of the soil, but if you sink a couple of even 1 foot test ground rods 100 feet apart, then connect them with wire and an ohmmeter I bet you'll be surprised at how low the resistance is.  Not low enough to be practical at 12 volts, but at 117 or more you could run just 1 hot wire that's insulated and use the earth for the other conductor.  Just ask any cow that's ever dealt with an electric fence.  Most good electric fences can also burn off weeds that come in contact with them, so they're pumping some power through the earth as a return path.  At least maybe you could harvest some earthworms that you drove out of the ground.

  Alan