Why does putting a 9-volt battery in salt water quickly ruin it?
142072
Salt water works better because it's a better conductor of electricity as opposed to just tap water.  In salt water, you have a solution of both Cl- and Na+ floating about creating a means of transferring electricity (electolytes).  So, instead of a saltbridge to provide the transfer of ions, all the ions needed are right there, which will quickly drain the battery.  Think of it as a short circuit - you have a large current because the path of resistance from the cathode to the anode is nothing.  Plus, there's plenty of ions to provide that means of conduction.
37306
zThe zincs you use on a boat are called "Sacrificial Anodes". Zinc is used because it has a higher voltage in the water so the current will be more inclined to flow from it than from your propeller. To complete the electrical circuit, the zincs must be connected to the items they are intended to protect. Usually this is no problem because the zinc is bolted right to the shaft or underwater housing. Non metal boats will usually have a copper bonding wire inside that connects all the underwater metal items together so they all share the protection from zinc anodes. Since engines use the metal frame as the negative battery connection and the engine is connected to the prop shaft, the engine and the negative side of your 12 volt system are also part of this bonding connection. This bonding wire is usually connected somewhere to the rigging. This is not for electrolysis protection but for some protection from lightning strikes to conduct it into the water through the items connected together.\n\nBasically you put it there to stop your propeller and stuff from corroding...
152367
Mostly, it is because desalination plants are extremely expensive to build and maintain. If there was an easier way of removing the salt, however, it would be a very good idea.
591859
Yeah, okay.  So it works like this, \n\nYou get a shock when you touch a live wire, or, say, a charged conductor (like a sister rubbing her rubber soled slippers on the carpet) because that conductor has an excess of electrons.  These electrons (the electrical charge) are trying to get to the ground (you can think of the earth as the largest conductor around, it is therefore the best place for extra electrons to be, energetically speaking).\n\nSo if you stick a live wire into the ocean (the salt water is a good conductor) but it is so vast that the electrons will spread incredibly fast (going to the ground in every conceivable direction) so the charge will become really small really quickly.\n\nSo basically, if you're standing near where you stick the wire in, you'd be luck to electrocute yourself.  Though I wouldn't recommend trying.
2722
I would say it is possible by serious computer modders.\n\nYou CANNOT submerge electronics in distilled water and still have them work. There are tons of chemicals and other oils on the surfaces of the computer that will introduce salinity and conductivity into water. Distilled water doesn't matter in the least.
797061
yes.  saltwater is salty, meaning it has a lot of ions.  Lots of ions conduct electricity.
154173
i think pretty much everyone throws batteries in the trash, there hasn't been a spate of battery related fires so it sounds like its relatively safe - of course there will be flukes but its nothing to cause major worry.
502133
Short circuiting the battery is not a good idea, but it should not explode or leak "acid" as you suggest.  It is actually incorrect to call the inner contents of a standard 9 volt batter "acid" since there is actually no "acid" inside.  Most standard batteries are called "alkaline".\n\nThe wire placed acrocess the two leads of the battery has very little resistance...almost zero (but not quite zero, just a tab above).\nAccording to Ohm's law,\nV = R*I\nwhere V is the voltage, R is the resistance, and I is the current, you can see that with a very small resistance, a very large current will be drawn.  This large current will heat up the wire. Depending on just how much current and the type and thickness of the wire, the wire may or may not begin to glow or melt.\nSoon after shorting out the batter (within a few minutes) the battery will be dead.  An aweful waste of a battery in my opinion.
741555
Heat speeds up the chemical reaction within the battery. This delivers lots of electrons from the positive terminal to the negative terminal. To the extent that these electrons are lost to the environment (i.e., if there are any conductors that can carry the electrons away from the negative terminal), the battery is being discharged, and a portion of its chemical energy has been wasted.\n\nThat's why many people store batteries in the refrigerator or freezer. Being cold slows down the chemical reaction, so there is less tendency for the battery to discharge. The battery won't provide much electrical power if you try to USE it while it is cold, but cold is a good way to store it and preserve its chemical energy for a future time when you warm it up and use it.
1026855
I agree with the others, you questions is unclear.\n\nThe only thing I can say (wild guess) is that there are some telemetry circuits that use a slight current as a zero point.  If the current actually goes to zero, they know there is a problem with the circuit.  Otherwise, they might not know until a lot of damage has been done, depending on what is being monitored.
149208
I believe that a "floating ground" is used on large seagoing ships (pun intended!).  Seriously, the floating ground avoids using the ship's structure including the hull from carrying large electrical currents that may promote corrosion.  Often sacrificial zinc plates are also placed on the hull to avoid galvanic corrosion, especially because the properrers are bronze and the hull is steel.  With a floating ground system, electric supply cables must also include sufficient ground wires to permit current to flow between the ship's generators and all loads and back to the generators.  The frames of machines and electronic devices must also use the floating ground system to avoid shocks to the crew.
445432
It does, but the charge dissipates so quickly and is spread so thin over the large mass of water that it doesn't effect a very large area or go very far.
779355
make a mixture of half baking soda and half water. then apply it to where the acid is. This is great for when you have to clean the prongs on the battery. Be careful not to touch the acid.
851280
(m)\n\n1. VERY PURE water is a poor conductor of electricity. However, very small amounts of impurities, especially salts, greatly increase the electrical conductivity of water.\n2. The main carriers of electrical current are dissolved ions. If a \nbattery is connected to a container of water so that the (+) and (-) poles of the battery are immersed in the water, the positive ions will migrate toward the (-) pole and the negative ions will migrate toward the (+) pole (electrical opposites attract). This closes the\n"switch" and electric current flows through the solution.\n3. Different ions can help carry the electric current, some more / some  less, depending upon their electrical charge and their size. More highly charged,  smaller ions are more efficient carriers of the electrical current.\n4. The higher the concentration of ions, the greater is the conductance of the solution.\n5. There is a complication however, the water and / or certain of the ions may undergo a chemical reaction to one or the other, or both of the electrodes. You may not want to introduce this in the beginning but it does happen.\n6. None of the ion electrical current carriers of salts dissolved in water are as mobile as "free" electrons in a metal are. And the differences are very large. For example, if the conductivity of  VERY PURE WATER is 0.000004 conductivity units, the conductivity of a saturated solution of common table salt NaCl is 23 conductivity units, and the conductivity of a typical metal such as copper wire is 60, 000, 000 conductivity units. So while the\nions in a dissolved salt behave something like "free" electrons, they are very slow and sluggish moving
173640
Over time, the barrier that separates the chemical components in the battery cannot maintain the electrical separation.  The reaction goes very very slowly, and the battery will eventually go bad.  Putting the battery in a lower temperature lowers the reaction rate, and hence the separator lasts longer and the battery's natural discharge rate is slowed.  Lower temperatures tend to inhibit chemical reactions; that's why we put food in there.  The bacteria that eat our food is inhibited at cool temps.
130352
as stated by Kobe, the chemicals inside the battery cause a "difference in potency" at the end caps of the battery. One cap has a surge of positively charged static, and the other, negatively charged static. This causes that whatever is put close to the battery caps, and is a "good conductor" (not like wood, more like metal), will be driven to let direct current flow through it. This process will last for as long the chemicals inside the battery wouldn't mix all together. The "workload" driving negative surge on one side and positive surge on the other causes chemicals to mix all together. When this comes to happen the battery will stop working.
194730
I think it has something to do with the fact that the fish are not grounded to the earth so the current just travels around them not through them.