347
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 30 points 3 days ago

Elon probably told them to dump the coolant in the street because he thought it would be a very funny joke. And probably also told them to put the green dye in first.

Sounds like the sort of thing he would think is hilariously funny.

[-] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 13 points 3 days ago

Is lye a common thing for people to use as coolant? I’m not saying it’s not, I’ve just never heard of it.

[-] Nougat@fedia.io 20 points 3 days ago

Borax and lye are both cleaning agents.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

That's what I thought, but Tesla is claiming that it was coolant.

[-] Nougat@fedia.io 8 points 3 days ago

They're cleaning agents individually; I can't speak to what they are when combined.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago

Looks like they are also a cleaning product when combined.

https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1992/10/04/lye-soap-recipes-and-warnings/

But of course that doesn't necessarily mean it can't also be used as a coolant.

From what I understand, neutrino detectors involve what is essentially a swimming pool full of dish soap.

[-] Nougat@fedia.io 5 points 3 days ago

That's why Teslas are expensive and shitty. They're diverting effort and funds to neutrino detection.

[-] Cenzorrll@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Lye and oil makes soap, not lye and borax. The key in all these recipes is lye and oils, not lye and borax for anyone who isn't going to click on the link and start mixing these chemicals. Lye can be real nasty if you don't know how to handle it. It's one of those chemicals where the safety precautions are there for a reason, not because it's normal practice.

[-] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Lye and rich lady fat if one believes Tyler Durdon

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

To be fair, the article does start with similar warnings.

[-] Cenzorrll@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Yeah, I'm just warning people who aren't going to click on the link and instead start mixing lye and borax and wiping the counter with it

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

In that case, thanks for doing that.

[-] Revan343@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 days ago

Presumably they were cleaning the coolant lines, same as flushing a vehicle radiator

[-] skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

mildly concentrated sodium hydroxide solutions would corrode the living fuck out of aluminum pretty quickly (https://www.calpaclab.com/aluminum-chemical-compatibility-chart/), especially when hot and circulating, so no

could have been a kind of additive maybe? but then it won't be a lot of it. borax forms a gel or at least high viscosity solution when mixed with glycols so both can't be used at the same time as a coolant

Dye might be fluorescein, it fluoresces under UV (duh) could be useful in checking what's this thing

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

It kind of sounds like they told some junior exec to come up with a quick excuse because whatever they were actually doing was a lot worse.

[-] skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 3 days ago

i have no idea what they were cooking but it's not coolant, unless temperature there never drops below 0C

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago

I think @ChicoSuave above figured it out. It was used to flush the coolant.

[-] irotsoma@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

It's possible they didn't properly treat the liquid they were using as coolant and needed the lye and borax to remove scaling and that it actually wasn't the coolant itself. That would also explain not having the proper permits for storing the chemicals if they were just being used for cleaning. Though wouldn't be surprised if they were then just going to dump it down the drain anyway...

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

I have absolutely no idea.

this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2024
347 points (97.5% liked)

News

23266 readers
3906 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS