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Electric rain can eat through metal
104 points by sohkamyung 3 days ago | 21 comments
  • goda90
    > People have wanted to collect rain to create electricity, but that hasn’t worked on a large scale

    It might be a useful effect for small electronics in damp environments where solar isn't a great option. Caves, rainforests, showers.

    • gustavus
      https://what-if.xkcd.com/23/

      In short it won't be. Less than $100 in a century during the highest recorded rainfall in the US.

      • dsimms
        I had totally forgotten about the rain generator item in that edition of What If! I think because it includes this gem:

        Q. What if you strapped C4 to a boomerang? Could this be an effective weapon, or would it be as stupid as it sounds?

        A. it's the second one. Aerodynamics aside, I’m curious what tactical advantage you’re expecting to gain by having the high explosive fly back at you if it misses the target.

        • oniony
          Well it would gently encourage you not to miss.
        • colechristensen
          There's two kinds of boomerang, the one to try to hit something with has a different shape and goes in a straight line without returning. It indeed might be a clever alternative to a grenade, made of explosives in a thin metal shell because one person could throw more explosive mass further than a person could throw a grenade.
  • anigbrowl
    Nice to see people working on quotidian science issues like this rather than chasing unicorns.
    • fuzztester
      Startup with that monetizable name starting in 3 - 2 - 1 -
      • teeray
        Chasing Unicorns is a pretty good band name too.
  • hinkley
    Wonder if this effect happens at all with stone.
    • elevaet
      Great question. You can get some really pronounced rain erosion grooves and patterns on limestone, I wonder if this effect is part of the story, or if it's just normal dissolving going on.
  • khelavastr
    protonated rain aka acid rain
  • phendrenad2
    So if I pour water onto a huge dome of metal, it might build up enough of a negative static charge to jump a spark gap? New science exhibit idea!
    • pfdietz
      Water-driven electrostatic generators are really easy to build. The key is to have droplets separate at a point where there's an electric field, which causes the detaching droplet to carry a charge. Properly arranged this can cause an exponential increase in charge with time.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin_water_dropper

  • froh42
    pay/somethingwall