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The trick to not being electrocuted (and this works at all times) is to not be the path of least resistance (or near-least resistance for big currents/voltages like lightning).
The toaster falling into the water is actually unlikely to do you harm, unless you're in a plasic bath and happen to be touching the metal fittings at the time, as the current will travel through the water and bath fittings in preference to you, and hopefully blow a fuse. You might get some of the current (as wet skin conducts electricity quite well), and you might get burns from the hot water, but you probably won't come to serious harm.
The dangerous part is getting out of the bath with a live toaster. If you pick it up, you suddenly become the path of least resistance, and so the current will go through you. If you get out onto the floor with wet feet with it still in there, and the bath is insulated, you become the path of least reistance too (partly why it's important all pipework in the house is earthed properly, so that's always a better route for the electricity than you - I believe the other is to stop static charge building up in central heating systems, like a big wet Van De Graff machine).
So to answer the sea/toaster thing, the sea is like a very well earthed bath, so a little electricity won't harm anything except in the immediate area, as the saline water is very good at conducting the electricity instead of you. If you were to /touch/ a live electrical cable in the sea, though, you'd be cooked remarkably quickly, as you'd become a component in the cable-person-sea circuit. |
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