Damn! How bad did they want to burn up Ted Bundy ?

[vorlon13]

Seriously, a typical single residential electrical service of that era could provide 100 amps at 240 volts (24,000 watts! and recall what a 1000 watt microwave can do) so there is no conceivable need for an entire state to conserve power during Ted Bundy's scheduled execution time to insure there is sufficient power available to deliver the maximum amount opf power allowed by law !!

Jesus Fucking Christ !!!

Even a small percentage of the power available in Florida at the time wouldn't just electrocute Ted, he would have exploded, and with considerable force.  Now, appropriate for Ted, well, yeah, but  hardly practical or necessary.

Suffice to say, this is bunk, but pretty damn funny bunk.


From Snopes:

Florida Gov. Bob Graham today signed a cooperative agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority for more electricity to be used in the coming execution of convicted killer Theodore Bundy. The power sales contract with TVA will provide ten additional megawatts of energy to Florida Power & Light in order to ensure Bundy is executed using the maximum voltage and amperage allowed.

In addition to the temporary contract for electricity, Graham urged Florida residents to reduce their electrical usage for a five-minute period beginning at 6:57 A.M. EST March 4, 1986. Bundy is scheduled to be executed at 7:00 A.M. on that date.

If citizens of the state can turn off all non-vital air conditioning, televisions, electric dryers and washers during that brief period, we could have as much as five additional megawatts to pump into the chair.

Reddy Communications of Akron, Ohio — owners of the popular Reddy Kilowatt logo — will prepare a special gold medallion for the event with the inscription, 'Die Quicker Electrically.' The medallions will be on sale, [and the] proceeds will help defray the tremendous costs associated with Bundy's prosecution, incarceration, and ultimate execution.

[Jackalope]

Two minutes hate, nothing more.

[vorlon13]

Several years ago I was on a techie science board and we had someone advocating for scaling up rail gun technology to a device large enough to provide a significant boost into space of something the size of the space shuttle.

Well, the crew on the site did some math, and the electricity needed for such a gadget could consume nearly the entire US electrical output while it's on. And think what that would entail: nearly every power plant in the country would have a special high voltage transmission line installed that goes to Florida, nearly the entire country would be in an electrical black out for several hours before and after each launch, and many power plants would have to be redesigned from being optimized for essentially steady load conditions to being capable of a sudden ramp up to full power and then back to neutral after just a few minutes.

Suffice to say, this is all wildly impossible and impractical.

And then we get a hoaxer wanting to do something very similar, but at maybe 5% of that scale, and apply all the power to less than 200 pounds of human tissue!

Even out in a field with nothing around for at least a mile in any direction, Ted Bundy's execution zap is going to approximate the power of many large artillery shells going off simultaneously and be exceedingly dangerous to even look at while wearing a welding helmet!

I don't think even God Almighty ever smote anybody that hard!