this post was submitted on 25 May 2026
390 points (97.6% liked)

People Twitter

10176 readers
2159 users here now

People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.

RULES:

  1. Mark NSFW content.
  2. No doxxing people.
  3. Must be a pic of the tweet or similar. No direct links to the tweet.
  4. No bullying or international politcs
  5. Be excellent to each other.
  6. Provide an archived link to the tweet (or similar) being shown if it's a major figure or a politician. Archive.is the best way.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 
all 30 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 79 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] abysmalpoptart@lemmy.world 59 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Boats actually sail on water. I think you're confusing them with the common basilisk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_basilisk

[–] red_tomato@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago

No, it’s actually Jesus in a Flintstone car

[–] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 30 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Me too. It uses a battery to heat water into pressurized steam.

It's not very effective.

[–] BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 month ago

Boiling water to spin a turbine, everything is Steam Power.

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (7 children)

Fun fact! It is thermodynamically impossible to make a vehicle that derives its energy from water. You cannot get more energy out of a water molecule than you put into it.

Edit: forgot about fusion. It is thermodynamically impossible to derive energy from the chemical bonds in water without putting more energy in than you get out. None of these water powered cars are using fusion generators. They're all about splitting the oxygen from the hydrogen and then burning the hydrogen with the oxygen, and there simply isn't a way to do that without wasting a ton of energy

[–] tomi000@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You can heat the water somewhere, make the vehicle use the heat as energy, then swap out the cooled water for fresh hot water after driving 50m

[–] original_charles@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Damn, that's so crazy. Where do you live? Do you go through deserted alleys often?

[–] tomi000@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago
[–] neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] tomi000@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

No, months.

[–] zaubentrucker@sopuli.xyz 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Only if I'm not allowed to do fusion

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That technology is only 10 years away, I hear

[–] Mammothmothman@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago

That was 30 years ago.

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

My car contains a small micro-singularity levitating in a magnetic field. The engine feeds small amounts of matter into it, capturing a sizable fraction of the rest-mass of the infalling matter as usable energy. The fuel I choose to feed the black hole powering my car? Ordinary water.

I have invented the water-powered car.

[–] prime_number_314159@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

You could fuse it into silicon and helium, and produce quite a bit of energy that way.

[–] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Well wait a second now, how small can we get hydroelectric dams? Let gravity do the work, sounds easy.../s

[–] Rooster326@programming.dev 1 points 1 month ago

Well how much energy did you put into your water molecules?

[–] rustydrd@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Not even if we squeeze it, like, real gentle but for a long time?

[–] doingthestuff@lemy.lol 9 points 1 month ago

You are SOOOOO dead

[–] Quexotic@infosec.pub 9 points 1 month ago

Unless it's a steam engine.

[–] tuxiqae@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 month ago (4 children)
[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 25 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Water has too low of potential energy to use as fuel in normal circumstances. The people who say this stuff usually say its patents or a secret method kept secret by car companies and are conspiracy brained.

Realistically probably this originally started as somebody being told about hydrogen fuel cells and people telephoned it into a conspiracy theory.

[–] PuddleOfKittens@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Realistically probably this originally started as somebody being told about hydrogen fuel cells and people telephoned it into a conspiracy theory.

Realistically it probably started as a scam as, like the "this one weird trick! Doctors hate her!" thing. The premise is simple: learn how to modify your car to run on water instead of petrol (which sounds wonderful - so cheap! So convenient! Imagine if you could just fill up a bucket and dump it into your fuel tank and it'd work!). It sounds intuitively plausible - water is a liquid, petrol is a liquid, car is a machine that turns liquid into vroom - and frankly nobody in the general public knows why water-powered engines violate thermodynamics, only that they do (assuming they do).

And you really need to understand that these scams target the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet. The fact that it filters out anyone who applies critical thinking and education is a feature, not a bug.

[–] Fedizen@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I don't disagree with the idea silliness is a feature not a bug, however most conspiracies that gain a lot of traction have a hook they use to try to get people in the door. Often that starts as something true-ish even if it is misdirected 180 degrees within the group of conspiracists (see Qanon's pedophile cabals).

[–] InFerNo@lemmy.ml 21 points 1 month ago

They are going to kill this man, because his invention will void a trillion dollar industry, and make it seem like an accident by bringing the whole plane down.

[–] Sektor@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

Big oil won't let that happen.

[–] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 month ago

All engines end up working on water

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 weeks ago

I remember reading of a six stroke engine.

The four first strokes was normal, on the fifth, it injected water into the cylinder, the heat making it expand into steam, pushing the piston down, and the sixth stroke ejected the steam.

It was apparently a quite clever design as it reduced the need for extra cooling, and gave some extra range.