What would happen if you dropped an electric appliance that was still plugged in into a body of water?

Say you dropped a hair dryer that was plugged into a wall into a lake or something. (theoretically) What would happen if there was someone else in the lake? I read that this was actually a phobia (to be scared to go into a body of water because someone might drop an electrical appliance in), so my curiosity got the best of me.|||Nothing would happen to the person in the lake. The appliance would instantly ground itself, run too much current, and blow its own circuit. A lake is just far too massive for the electricity to affect anyway.





However, if you are in the bathtub and someone tosses in a hair dryer or toaster, you're dead unless the GFIC works exactly and as quickly as it's supposed to (Ground Fault Interrupt Circuit). The amperage will stop your heart in a fast and painful manner.|||In a body of water the size of a lake nothing would happen to someone if they were far enough away from the hair dryer. The appliances fuse would blow before it was able to pump out the necessary amperage to actually kill someone. But if you were holding on to a hair dryer and jumped into a lake you would have a very bad day.|||We discussed this in my physics class today. Water acts as a conductor for the charge transfer from the electrical unit. So the objects/creatures in the water would feel the shock from the electron flow, and potentially die. I don't know the aftermath, just the process.|||I'm not too sure .


But I would think if it was big enough [the lake] the person swimming would be okay .


Unless they touched it I guess, then they could get electrocuted.