Electric rain can eat through metal | Hacker News Reader

Electric rain can eat through metal

scientificamerican.com

117 pointssohkamyung27 comments

https://web.archive.org/web/20260828190911/https://www.scien...

> People have wanted to collect rain to create electricity, but that hasn’t worked on a large scale

It might be a useful effect for small electronics in damp environments where solar isn't a great option. Caves, rainforests, showers.

https://what-if.xkcd.com/23/

In short it won't be. Less than $100 in a century during the highest recorded rainfall in the US.

I had totally forgotten about the rain generator item in that edition of What If! I think because it includes this gem:

Q. What if you strapped C4 to a boomerang? Could this be an effective weapon, or would it be as stupid as it sounds?

A. it's the second one. Aerodynamics aside, I’m curious what tactical advantage you’re expecting to gain by having the high explosive fly back at you if it misses the target.

Well it would gently encourage you not to miss.

There's two kinds of boomerang, the one to try to hit something with has a different shape and goes in a straight line without returning. It indeed might be a clever alternative to a grenade, made of explosives in a thin metal shell because one person could throw more explosive mass further than a person could throw a grenade.

Someone submitted the design during WWI but it wasn’t used: https://www.southernhighlandnews.com.au/story/2992498/boomer...

Seems like with drones becoming so common, this invention just doesn’t make much sense anymore.

That's for a turbine setup. We need to do the math on a kind of rain powered flow battery instead. And it doesn't need to offset grid power, just handle cases where hookup is inconvenient and solar is off the table.

The stone erosion question is interesting. If this effect works on limestone too, it could explain some geological formations we've been attributing purely to chemical weathering. Might be a whole new field of research

isn't this still a form of chemical weathering?

Wonder if this effect happens at all with stone.

Great question. You can get some really pronounced rain erosion grooves and patterns on limestone, I wonder if this effect is part of the story, or if it's just normal dissolving going on.

It's the latter https://wwwbrr.cr.usgs.gov/projects/GWC_Crystal/erosion/inde...

Nice to see people working on quotidian science issues like this rather than chasing unicorns.

Startup with that monetizable name starting in 3 - 2 - 1 -

Chasing Unicorns is a pretty good band name too.

ha ha. i raise you:

- smart band (smartwatch startup)

- gang (or band) of four (s/w engg. startup)

- pink sting (rock music startup)

- hard times or hard wear (hardware device startup - oops, no)

protonated rain aka acid rain

So if I pour water onto a huge dome of metal, it might build up enough of a negative static charge to jump a spark gap? New science exhibit idea!

Water-driven electrostatic generators are really easy to build. The key is to have droplets separate at a point where there's an electric field, which causes the detaching droplet to carry a charge. Properly arranged this can cause an exponential increase in charge with time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvin_water_dropper

pay/somethingwall

https://archive.ph/holar

Nope, different article. Try this instead: https://archive.ph/FwVX4

Source publication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10941-6

Whoops! thanks, guess I should have clicked it to double check thought it look familiar lol

I recommend deleting the incorrect link.

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