this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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Is there actually any biologic mechanism to generat and conduct electricity at a high enough voltage and current that it can ionize air over a distance as large as that (looks like at least 1/2m) without damaging the actual animal doing it?
Looking around, electric eels can do 860V, which is well short from the 15kV needed to gap 0.5m of air at sea level, plus that animal's skin would need to be crazy insulating for all that power to not just go down the most highly conductive way possible (all the nice conductive water all the way down to the grown contained in the animal itself) instead of having to ionize 0.5m or air.
I mean, we can always claim it was possible but lost, but then again we can also claim that for magic or animal teleportation.
Thereβs no evidence that thereβs not
Midichlorians. The ability to cause an extinction level event is insignificant next to the power of the Force.
Just out of pedantry: Water has terrible conductivity. Blood is less terrible though and in any case air is far worse than either, so point stands.
We can get past that particular issue if the electric dinosaur was jumping such that its victim has the shortest air gap
Pure water is a terrible conductor, but water with dissolved ions is a pretty good conductor, and that's mostly (maybe always, since things like Sodium an Potassium ions tend to be pretty important in various processes, though IANAB so maybe there are exceptions) the water inside living beings.
More like an ok conductor, but yea that's what I meant with the blood (and whatever other ways water exists in our body). Though even pure water is more conductive than air by orders or magnitude.
Well, once you ionize it air is a great conductor ;)
The force dude. Its pretty obvious the t-rex is a sith lord.
T-Sidious Rex!
Darth Tyrannosaurus.