Electroboom, busting the appliance in the tub will kill you myth.

[Stonent]

One day I think his youtube channel will just stop updating.  That's when you know he's gone too far and killed himself.

[digsys]

It's pretty sad when you're not watching it for any technical content, but keep whispering .. please .. please .. please ..

[Stonent]

Well I did find the testing of the water with the volt meter and lighting the LED interesting.

[amyk]

The electrolysis products were probably more dangerous than the electricity...

[senso]

The guy is either nuts, or he knows exactly what is doing, but its painfull to see him putting his fingers in the water 

[Stonent]

The electrolysis products were probably more dangerous than the electricity...

I had to wonder when he said he didn't know what was going on with that. I've made some pretty noxious chlorine with just batteries, salt water and a coke bottle.

120V seems like it would do a lot.

[AndyC_772]

Dumb question time... if there's a simple answer to this then I'll claim excessive tiredness due to my hectic engineer's social life:

Why did only one of the wires get eaten away during the process? If it's plugged into the ac mains, and the polarity of the two wires keeps reversing, surely whatever electrolytic effect happens at one wire will happen at the other during the other half cycle?

Why was the effect on the wires not symmetrical?

[rolycat]

The electrolysis products were probably more dangerous than the electricity...

I had to wonder when he said he didn't know what was going on with that. I've made some pretty noxious chlorine with just batteries, salt water and a coke bottle.

120V seems like it would do a lot.

But with 120V AC, the anode and the cathode are constantly swapping places, so whatever reactions take place are going to be very messy and largely unproductive.  Mehdi may have been expressing that, or he may have been reinforcing his hilariously incompetent vblog persona.

A possible answer to AndyC_772's question is that both wires were corroded, but one happened to break off at the insulation before the other.

[Stonent]

Of course who could forget the classic moment that started this question.

[smashedProton]

The bubbles were chlorine...
He was dipping his hand in sodium hydroxide...

[amyk]

The bubbles were chlorine...
He was dipping his hand in sodium hydroxide...

I'm not too familiar with chemistry but since the electrodes are alternating wouldn't the hydrogen just combine with the chlorine and give HCl... which immediately dissolves into the water again?

[Stonent]

The bubbles were chlorine...
He was dipping his hand in sodium hydroxide...

I'm not too familiar with chemistry but since the electrodes are alternating wouldn't the hydrogen just combine with the chlorine and give HCl... which immediately dissolves into the water again?

There would be a source of energy required to rejoin the H and Cl, if he were to hold a lit match over it, there would be popping from H joining with O2 and H joining with Cl. The HCl that didn't splatter or go off as vapor would go in the water and neutralize with the NaOH and become salt water again.

The murky-ness of the water was likely Copper(II) Chloride and also Copper Oxychloride which precipitates out when Copper(II) Chloride reacts with NaOH.

[smashedProton]

Copper(2) chloride is blue

[JackOfVA]

Leidenfrost effect demonstrations are worse - stick your finger in water, so that it is completely wet. Then stick your wet finger into a solder pot full of molten solder.  The Leidenfrost effect lets you do this without harm, but it doesn't take much to go wrong before it becomes a disaster.

[rolycat]

Leidenfrost effect demonstrations are worse - stick your finger in water, so that it is completely wet. Then stick your wet finger into a solder pot full of molten solder.  The Leidenfrost effect lets you do this without harm, but it doesn't take much to go wrong before it becomes a disaster.

Thanks to the same effect working in reverse, you can also dip your (dry) hand into a flask of liquid nitrogen at -196 °C.

Unfortunately I was told this while working in a biochemistry lab which had copious supplies of the stuff, and was young and stupid enough to try it. Fortunately nothing went wrong and my hand survived the ordeal.

[Shock]

Fearing the risk of a mercury explosion cloud in my microwave...
The other day I put a compact fluro tube with its electrodes exposed (submerged in shallow dish of water) for 10 seconds on high.
Lighted like a Christmas tree.  Not an experiment I will repeat but worth it.

[Alexei.Polkhanov]

The bubbles were chlorine...
He was dipping his hand in sodium hydroxide...

Yup and and hydrogen:
2NaCl + 2H2O ? Cl2 + H2 + 2NaOH

[Terabyte2007]

Not to mention the inhalation danger of gases produced by the Copper Chloride.

[G7PSK]

Fearing the risk of a mercury explosion cloud in my microwave...
The other day I put a compact fluro tube with its electrodes exposed (submerged in shallow dish of water) for 10 seconds on high.
Lighted like a Christmas tree.  Not an experiment I will repeat but worth it.

You don't need any water even a tube with the filaments burnt out will light up super bright in a microwave, done that many times to demonstrate it to non-believers.

[strangelovemd12]

For those interested in the electrolysis going on, there is a fun little paper by NASA showing kids how to make chlorine gas:
http://aquarius.nasa.gov/pdfs/electrolysis.pdf

Also note that electrolysis on molten salt is a nifty way to get that big chunk of sodium you've always wanted.

[SeanB]

For those interested in the electrolysis going on, there is a fun little paper by NASA showing kids how to make chlorine gas:
http://aquarius.nasa.gov/pdfs/electrolysis.pdf

Also note that electrolysis on molten salt is a nifty way to get that big chunk of sodium you've always wanted.

Better do that in a very dry atmosphere though, otherwise you get it all coming apart with humidity.

[Zero999]

I've thought about this before: you're very unlikely to be electrocuted if you're in the bath and someone throws an electrical appliance in the water in modern installations where an RCD is mandatory, I'd suspect it's impossible.