Yes, I agree with what you are saying - that is a consequence of the linear behavior of resistors. I think the person you were responding to, though, would also agree with this and when he said "high resistivity" he meant high enough so that full voltage was delivered to the pool. Sean On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 2:55 PM, Olin Lathrop wr= ote: > Sean Breheny wrote: >> The voltage distribution in the water DOES have to do with its >> conductivity because it isn't being fed by a true voltage source. > > Only if you are drawing so much current as to drop the feed voltage. =A0I > think for the purpose of the original question, the voltage at the > connection point between the two cords is fixed enough. =A0Even if the po= ol > was a significant enough load as to drop the feed voltage (and the breake= r > somehow didn't trip), the distributed voltages would all still have the s= ame > ratio to each other. > > Think of it this way. =A0The water is a whole bunch of little resistors a= ll > strung together in a network. =A0Put a fixed voltage between any two poin= ts of > this network, and you can calculate the voltage of all other nodes. =A0No= w > notice that everything is based on ratios of the resistors. =A0For exampl= e, > you could double the value of all resistors and the voltages would be the > same. > > Think of a voltage divider, which is a very simple case of a resistor > network. =A0If the top resistance is R and the bottom 2R, then the output= will > be 2/3 the input. =A0It doesn't matter if the absolute resistances are 10= 0 and > 200 ohms, or 1500 and 3000 ohms, or any other combination as long as the = top > is half the bottom. > > More complicated resistor networks work the same way. > > > ******************************************************************** > Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, http://www.embedinc.com/products > (978) 742-9014. =A0Gold level PIC consultants since 2000. > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .