I never knew that!

[Scotaidh]

I remember an episode of Junkyard Wars where the teams had to make a functional torpedo, and one of the guys claimed that a car starter motor would work just fine in water ... never tested it myself, but his torpedo ran fine.

[NARSES2]

Re running model railway under water, I have always had the impression that devices connected to electrical mains and (non-distilled) water are usually a Very Bad Idea.

That's certainly what I was taught back in the day

[McColm]

Re running model railway under water, I have always had the impression that devices connected to electrical mains and (non-distilled) water are usually a Very Bad Idea.

That's certainly what I was taught back in the day

So was I. I suppose it's down to the voltage used and the size of the container.

[Hobbes]

Water is somewhat conductive, depending on what's been dissolved in the water. Tap water has all kinds of stuff dissolved.

For low voltages, this is not a big problem. The resistance of the wiring in the circuit is much lower than that of the water, so your circuit will function normally, you just run down the battery a bit faster because the water forms additional loads on the circuit.

If you ever have a car accident and the car goes into a body of water, the electrics will keep working. One tip I've seen is to switch on the lights to make the car easier to find for rescuers. Electric windows will also work, except for the period when the car is filling with water, because the pressure difference will push the windows into their frames hard enough that the extra friction is usually too high for the electric motor.

The safety issue with a transformer occurs not in normal use, but when a transformer malfunctions: if a short develops in the transformer between the primary and secondary coils, you get mains voltage on the secondary side.

Your body conducts electricity. Mains voltage is high enough that if you become part of a mains circuit (by touching an exposed wire, or by being inside a pool that has a mains source inside) the current across your heart can reach a lethal value.

[McColm]

I never knew that the Germans only had two aircraft carriers during World War II,  why didn't they build more?

[PR19_Kit]

They didn't use the ones they had, so I guess they didn't feel the need for any more.

[zenrat]

I didn't think they had any!

[McColm]

The Graf Zeppelin Class, two were built .The Graf Zeppelin or Kriegsmarine never sailed under her own steam but was towed whilst in service with the German Navy. The Russians bought it and sunk it during an exercise 'to see how hard can be to sink a aircraft carrier '.
The second ship was called Flugzeugtrager B but was never finished and was scrapped.
Two more aircraft carriers were proposed by converting two Frigates but they too were scrapped.

[Old Wombat]

KMS Graf Zeppelin was launched but never completed.

She was the lead ship in a planned Class of 4 ships. Only one other hull was begun but construction halted due to priority being given to U-boats & it was scrapped quite early in the war. Never officially named, that hull had been allocated the name Peter Strasser.

The other two were never started & never allocated names.


So, effectively, they didn't have any aircraft carriers operational during WW2.