What-If 0156: "Electrofishing for Whales"

[Felstaff]

Electrofishing for Whales



Seems there's a new What If? out, and as nobody's staked their claim, I'll have a shot at creating the thread myself, seeing as I spent a good chunk of the day cleaning up this subfora. Now, let's see if I don't fall afoul of my own goddamn rules. I'm sure there's something I did wrong.

Ah, yes! Comment on the article: I think it's fascinating that smaller fishie heartbeats can restart so easily again after a brief cardiac arrest, and we don't know why that is. Or, at least, why bigger fish have a harder time being electrocuted. I would probably think a larger heart would be more complex and require more energy to git goin' again.

[HES]

I'm surprised Randall didn't know about the clove oil thing.

Actually, on second thoughts, I'm surprised that I did know about the clove oil thing. Why the hell do I know that?

[taixzo]

I'm surprised Randall didn't know about the clove oil thing.

Actually, on second thoughts, I'm surprised that I did know about the clove oil thing. Why the hell do I know that?

I feel like I just learned about the clove oil thing last week. Maybe we're all Randall?

[Soupspoon]

Bigger fish get larger voltages across their length? That's my guess as to size/response differentials. Off the top of my head. Probably debunked in some of those references, but I might as well mention it.

(Just like it's not so good an idea to lay stretched/splayed out flat on the ground in a thunderstorm - curling into a squashed-down ball and grabbing your ankles is better - if there's a risk that other objects on the ground next to you could be struck and then you're presenting a better long path outwards than the ground you're laying on. But current that has to pop up into then down from the same foot isn't going to hurt your vital organs so much. And even a hit on your scruched-up back has a much spread route, the short way down to the ground, but obviously you still want to avoid that 'temptation' to be part of the charge-path, as much as possible.)

[gmalivuk]

Randall's off by three orders of magnitude on the power requirements for a blue whale.

I suspect he rounded up to 200 tonnes for their mass, which means about 200 m^3. 100 microwatts per cm^3 means 100 W/m^3, so just 20 kW, not MW.

[HES]

so just 20 kW, not MW.

I was wondering how 50 fishing boats added up to a nuclear power plant.

[Pfhorrest]

Blue whales, which are even larger than humans,^{[cetacean needed]}

[Overseasbrit]

I am a bit surprised no one commented on whales not actually being fish.....

[Soupspoon]

Usually, everyone thinks they're nuts, but they're actually fruit, because of their atomic spin being fractional.

[gmalivuk]

I am a bit surprised no one commented on whales not actually being fish.....

If you can fish for compliments you can fish for whales.

[Liri]

I was a bit taken aback by this one. It's rather dark.

[Mikeski]

I was a bit taken aback by this one. It's rather dark.

We started with vaporizing a city to play a game. We've since crushed a trillion trillion fuzzy things, destroyed the whole environment, killed most of humanity, destroyed the whole environment again, eaten most of humanity, destroyed the whole environment (it's the theme of what-if!), destroyed the whole universe (possibly), then destroyed just our galaxy (slackers), created at ecological disaster area, and, recently, killed all of humanity again.

Tazing a few whales seems pretty jolly, really.

[Liri]

I was a bit taken aback by this one. It's rather dark.

We started with vaporizing a city to play a game. We've since crushed a trillion trillion fuzzy things, destroyed the whole environment, killed most of humanity, destroyed the whole environment again, eaten most of humanity, destroyed the whole environment (it's the theme of what-if!), destroyed the whole universe (possibly), then destroyed just our galaxy (slackers), created at ecological disaster area, and, recently, killed all of humanity again.

Tazing a few whales seems pretty jolly, really.

Nah, it's akin to the "one death a tragedy, a thousand a statistic" dealio - singling out whales just to kill them is pretty cruel. Mass destruction of everything is, by comparison, comical.

[dlep]

Using our simple extrapolation, instead of 20 megawatts, we might need a gigawatt. In other words, you'll need to bring a large nuclear generating station.

Or a bolt of lightning. 1.21 Gigawatts!

[zjxs]

Bigger fish get larger voltages across their length? That's my guess as to size/response differentials. Off the top of my head. Probably debunked in some of those references, but I might as well mention it.

(Just like it's not so good an idea to lay stretched/splayed out flat on the ground in a thunderstorm - curling into a squashed-down ball and grabbing your ankles is better - if there's a risk that other objects on the ground next to you could be struck and then you're presenting a better long path outwards than the ground you're laying on. But current that has to pop up into then down from the same foot isn't going to hurt your vital organs so much. And even a hit on your scruched-up back has a much spread route, the short way down to the ground, but obviously you still want to avoid that 'temptation' to be part of the charge-path, as much as possible.)

If you can grab your ankles faster than lightning I'm very impressed.

[Soupspoon]

If you can grab your ankles faster than lightning I'm very impressed.

Obviously you grab them in anticipation. (Ooer!!)

Then pull your feet off the ground altogether, and wait there until the danger has passed.

[Sandor]

If you can grab your ankles faster than lightning I'm very impressed.

Then pull your feet off the ground altogether, and wait there until the danger has passed.

Traditionally, you grab your bootstraps if you want to pull your feet off the ground, not your ankles.

[Soupspoon]

Traditionally, you grab your bootstraps if you want to pull your feet off the ground, not your ankles.

But I'm wearing a unislipper!

[x7eggert]

Traditionally, you grab your bootstraps if you want to pull your feet off the ground, not your ankles.

For that you'd grab your own beard, just like you do when pulling yourself out of a swamp.

[Cervisiae Amatorem]

Did anyone notice that this article http://electrofishing.net/2016/01/23/535/ really demonized the alligator gar fish? The article made sure we knew they were cannibals (and that means just the worst sort!) so we don't feel bad about how they were shocking the hell out of them. I'm surprised they didn't call the gar fish Catholics, Democrats and Irishmen just to drive the nail in.

[GlassHouses]

I'm surprised Randall didn't know about the clove oil thing.

Actually, on second thoughts, I'm surprised that I did know about the clove oil thing. Why the hell do I know that?

You're not just old enough to have watched Marathon Man, but also old enough to have forgotten that you did?

[clockworkbookreader]

You're not just old enough to have watched Marathon Man, but also old enough to have forgotten that you did?

I learned about the Marathon Man/Clove oil thing in residency. A colleague of mine even wrote it up.

Reference: http://journals.lww.com/em-news/Fulltex ... ain.7.aspx

[zaphodbeebledoc]

Or a bolt of lightning. 1.21 Gigawatts!

Great Scott!

[zaphodbeebledoc]

If you can grab your ankles faster than lightning I'm very impressed.

Then pull your feet off the ground altogether, and wait there until the danger has passed.

Traditionally, you grab your bootstraps if you want to pull your feet off the ground, not your ankles.

And if you do find yourself falling, aim to miss the ground and fly away...