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Submerged functioning computer


mudmanc4

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The only reason why you think that liquid is bad for electronics is because most liquids are much more conductive than air and thus liquid contact between two points can create short circuits.. But if you can use a low-conductive liquid, you're fine, at least electrically. The other good point, which is the reason for conventional water cooling, is that most liquids have a much higher thermal capacity than air, thus they can absorb more heat than air per gram (and per centimeter) which makes them efficient for cooling.

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I just do not understand how the electronics are being exposed to liquid and still running.. I understand the oil is not conductive, but its still friggin liquid. I must be missing something ... no?

Good question !   If you own , or have access to a multimeter, take a bit of water in a glass, place the meter settings on "Ohms"  and place the probes into the water, they will show " continuity" or some.

The ions (positive and negitively charged)in the water will carry the oppositly charged, but if the ions are removed , you could actually submerge your computer in the de- ionized water as well  :whaa:  true, I have done this in a tech class. This however won't last because pure water in agressive and will soon dissolve metals such as copper and lead, making the water acidic or alkaline.

Somebody help me here, it's been a while  :-P

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mudmanc4, that is partially my field of study and I have to say that you seem to have it pretty much all right. I just don't know about the aggressiveness of pure water, I'm not saying it's false but I just don't know. What I do know is that it would at least work for a few minutes assuming that the water isn't contaminated and, without the "attacking the hardware" factor, would probably work indefinitely if one were able to keep the water isolated from contamination. One potential problem with certain liquids that I could think of is that if it's viscosity/surface tension were strong enough there could maybe be some conduction on the surface separating the liquid from the air, but I am merely conjecturing here, and I really don't know if such a thing could happen.

For conductivity 101, Wikipedia's page is quite technical, so I'l do my best to summarize: The conductivity of a material (or fluid) is basically the opposite of its resistivity, which is it's resistance to the passage of electrical current. That means that the higher the conductivity, the more easy it is for current to pass though that substance. For example, air typically has a conductivity of the order of 1x10^-14 Siemens/m, sterilized (or distilled) water is about 5x10^-6 Siemens/m and drinking water is somewhere around 1x10-3 Siemens/m. That means that drinking water is about 100 000 000 000 times more conductive than air (meaning it is that much more prone to conduct electricity) and about 100 times more conductive than drinking water. So, you can see that since electricity has a much harder time passing through distilled water than it does through drinking water, which explains why drinking water would make a short circuit and distilled water wouldn't. Now you will remark that the conductivity of distilled water is still much higher than that of air, but before a certain threshold which is situated somewhere between the conductivity of water and its distilled brethren, there is just no observable conduction of electrons and thus no short circuit at those voltages and at those distances (distance is important since conductivity depends on distance too). People usually say that I'm horrible at explaining stuff without a sheet of paper, so tell me which parts of this you don't understand so I can clarify.  :smiley:

For the water attacking the copper, I'l ask a chemistry geek friend of mine and get back to you if she has an answer.

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I just do not understand how the electronics are being exposed to liquid and still running.. I understand the oil is not conductive, but its still friggin liquid. I must be missing something ... no?

Not all liquid is conductive.

There is another liquid that you could do this with that will never cause damage to any parts, but is quite expensive. I wish I could remember the name. Apple used it once to show a iMac running "underwater" in a commercial 

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if you used veg oil, you could also cook your fries  :cheesy:

Most 33,000 volt step down power transmision  transformers are insulated and cooled by oil ,it is a better insuulator than air ,

not sure on cooking the fries  :lol: but a local transformer got an oil leak , apart from the loss of mains power the bang could be heard 3 miles away,

but an interesting cooling thought for computers, I will try mine in a water barrel , and will post back the result ,

if I ain't back you will know I had a problem ,  :evil6:

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Most 33,000 volt step down power transmision  transformers are insulated and cooled by oil ,it is a better insuulator than air ,

not sure on cooking the fries  :lol: but a local transformer got an oil leak , apart from the loss of mains power the bang could be heard 3 miles away,

but an interesting cooling thought for computers, I will try mine in a water barrel , and will post back the result ,

if I ain't back you will know I had a problem ,  :evil6:

Good luck with that Roco, and if you aint back in a couple days we will send out a search party...well ok we will as soon as the search party gets back from finding a few of the other members that havent been here in a while
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Good luck with that Roco, and if you aint back in a couple days we will send out a search party...well ok we will as soon as the search party gets back from finding a few of the other members that havent been here in a while

Oh so true Bro  :sad:, I am holding of ont the water barrel test , I need to break the ice first , :evil2:

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Oh so true Bro  :sad:, I am holding of ont the water barrel test , I need to break the ice first , :evil2:

Got to get to know the water barrel fist before you oil it up?  :lol:

Whe you get it warmed up will you need some tea bags?  :roll:

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