Cat pees in electrical outlet

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes - the only mistake by the OP is that he should have said

"If we assume cats pee is the same concentration of salt as seawater, then its *resistivity* is 0.2 ohms per metre...."

[Fredxxx]

What happens is very simple.

A cat pees in or around a socket over a period of time. A you say cat pee is conductive, but as it dries out, it becomes all the more so.

All that is then needed is for a short path to be sufficiently conductive to heat and slightly char the plastic surround and then you do have the potential for a more serious conductive path.

[ARW]

ONLY mistake my arse.

Mistake number one (as you say) was the first line of his post.

"If we assume cats pee is the same concentration of salt as seawater, then its resistance is 0.2 ohms per metre."

His first mistake was quickly followed by his second mistake ie the second line in his post - that included his calculation that 1cm of cat piss has a resistance of 0.002 ohms.

"If we assume cats pee is the same concentration of salt as seawater, then its resistance is 0.2 ohms per metre."

The third mistake was rather unsurprisingly in the third line of his post - the one where he assumed that a 110V socket outlet with a 0.002 ohm short across it would cause a 55kA current

"At 110 volts, that would cause a current of 55000 amps."

[ARW]

Rather unsurprisingly it is 200 ohms:-)

Assuming you mean a cubic cm.

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

Then where the f*ck did the guy in the forum get 0.2 ohms across a whole metre?

Using your figure, assuming you're talking about sea water concentrations of salt, which I'm assuming urine is similar to - a website I read said urine has "a salty taste"(!!), so I'm thinking the same flavour as the sea, we'd get a current of about half an amp, which means the socket should not have caught fire.

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

Then make corrections to all three.

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

Ah, I guess drying out pee will get VERY salty. Stupid animal.

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

Don't you need integrals and shit to work out 3D resistances? It was a long time ago I did O level.

[dennis]

ITYM a cm cube.

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

Those mean precisely the same thing for the value of 1. For the value of 2, a 2cm cube would be 8 cubic cm.

[dennis]

Idiot!

[ARW]

I mean something that is 10mm x 10mm x 10mm :-)

Any arguments on the 200 ohm?

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

Do explain your odd idea of mathematics.

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

There is nothing else either of thpose statements could mean. Dennis must be on magic mushrooms.

[dennis]

5 x 5 x 40 is a cubic cm as is 1 x 1 x 100, they have different resistances.

[dennis]

Anyone spot the deliberate error yet?

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

But 1x1x1 is the default given the context.

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

I knew what you meant. I guess you snapped the long one.

[ARW]

Fuck off. Do it yourself:-)

[Tough Guy no. 1265]

Thought you might want to show off.