# I tell ya... It's shocking! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 22, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673 "2006-02-22T19:40:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/21 "2006-02-23T16:22:49Z")
> [@Otanx](#): > > Slight hijack > Do you know why they use 400Hz instead of 60? Military equipment is the same way. I’m a EE but confess I’m not an expert at this and my classes were 30 years ago. I remember an explanation that at higher frequencies the inductive components of a circuit (motors) can be made smaller, spin faster and still accomplish the same work as a larger 60 hz component. So in a situation where space and weight is very valuable a higher frequency will allow for smaller components to do the work. Maybe a 400hz gearhead will stop in and give us a better explanation. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/22 "2006-02-23T16:23:16Z")
I don’t have anything major, but when I was visiting India, I once reached up and touched above one of their doorways. I felt a brief shock and there is a definite, but brief, gap in my memory (a few seconds, maybe) and then my cousin repeating whatever he said. I looked up, and there was an exposed wire up there. Ah, India. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/23 "2006-02-23T16:24:03Z")
You know, being an electrical engineer you’d think I’d have a lot of stories to share here, but I’ve been shocked very few times during my career. In fact, the only time I ever remember getting a shock was when I was poking around inside of a prototype industrial controller. I was like wtf, it’s turned off! Then I was like, oh yeah, the AC power filter circuit is still live even if the controller is off, and that circuit is right about where I was reaching with my fat fingers. :smack: Small Clanger’s post reminded me of a good shock I got back when I was in high school. I was playing my electric guitar in my bedroom, and went to open the window. When I touched the screen I got a rather painful shock. This was another wtf moment. Took me a while to figure out that my amp wasn’t grounded (because of a 3 prong to 2 prong converter) and that the screen window was grounding through the aluminum siding of the house, and that I was providing a ground path from the amp, through the guitar cable, through the strings of the guitar, then through me, to the screen window. > [@Otanx](#): > > Do you know why they use 400Hz instead of 60? If you use a higher frequency, the transformers can be made a lot smaller and lighter. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/24 "2006-02-23T16:33:38Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#): > > A week later, milking cows in the middle of a pretty decent storm… When I worked for Lockheed it was a long walk fron the hangar to the cars. I was going home one afternoon while a violent thunderstorm was in the area. The lightning wasn’t especially close, but it was within a few miles. As I walked to my car, my fingers touched the metal shaft of my unbrella. There was a definite electrical ‘buzzing sensation’. Hm. Keep the umbrella with its metal bits overhead? Or lower it and get wet? I don’t remember what I decided. But I was glad to get into my mobile Faraday cage. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/25 "2006-02-23T16:43:33Z")
I worked with a guy who had a very fastidious roommate in college. They had mice. The roomie set traps and caught all but one of them. The last one refused to be caught. It would steal the cheese, leaving the trap unsprung. (He should’ve used peanut butter.) Since the roomie was an EE student, he procured a very large capacitor. (I wasn’t told how large – just ‘industrial-sized’.) He charged the capacitor, either from the mains or with a 12v battery (I don’t remember which) and connected one end to wire mesh that he laid on the floor. The other end was connected to a long wire that went up to the ceiling and hung down over the middle of the wire mesh, a few inches from the floor. He made a hook in the exposed end of the wire and put a piece of cheese on it. During the night there was a loud pop. When Mr. Fastidious Obsessive-Compulsive Clean Guy got up in the morning there was mouse all over the kitchen. [sub]When my former coworker was a kid he liked to make nitroglycerine. He’d freeze the little vials in ice cubes and wait for a very hot day. Then he’d put the nitro-containing cubes in a line down the street on a hot day and wait for them to melt… Oh, and he also used to make ‘salt mazes’ for slugs. I’ve known a couple of weird people in my time.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/26 "2006-02-23T19:51:46Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > \ > Since the roomie was an EE student, he procured a very large capacitor. (I wasn’t told how large – just ‘industrial-sized’.) He charged the capacitor, either from the mains or with a 12v battery (I don’t remember which) and connected one end to wire mesh that he laid on the floor. \ Capacitors hold DC charge. It had to have been off of a battery or power supply (DC output) \ Great story though! Sounds just like the right thoughts for an EE geek. Remember, you can’t spell gEEk without the EE.!!! 😃 -Butler ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/27 "2006-02-23T20:02:42Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Back in the 80s, I roughnecked on drilling rigs during the summer to make money for school. You were already attractive in a fun-jokes-about-shit kind of way, but you “roughnecked”?!? Man, that’s hot (pun intended, in the context of this thread). Anyhoo, my only brush with The Big Fry was to try to pry a plug out of an extensive cord socket. With all-metal scissors. Flame, smoke, oopsie. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/28 "2006-02-23T20:03:25Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Back in the 80s, I roughnecked on drilling rigs during the summer to make money for school. You were already attractive in a fun-jokes-about-shit kind of way, but you “roughnecked”?!? Man, that’s hot (pun intended, in the context of this thread). Anyhoo, my only brush with The Big Fry was to try to pry a plug out of an extension cord socket. With all-metal scissors. Flame, smoke, oopsie. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/29 "2006-02-23T20:48:29Z")
Well, I like to call it ‘Shaking Hands with Jesus.’ When I was knee-high, three-four years old, I was down in my dad’s workroom, and he was, let’s say, grinding something. I’ve found a length of copper wire on the floor. I look over, and see the outlet. I put one end of the wire in the outlet. Nothing. I bend the wire. I put BOTH ends of the wi… How’d I get across the room? Oh, yeah. I still remember it. The scorch mark in the carpet was there for years, too. Hm. Also, when I was doing server repair, there was an entire sequence of Compaq Proliants that had this issue with shorting through the case. I’d go to [Doubleclick.net](http://Doubleclick.net), and the box would be down, I’d touch it and… WHEE! Reboot the whole rack! Saving the world from ad banners, one server rack at a time. Yep. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/30 "2006-02-23T20:56:48Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > Right. I know that radios put out power, and the power is transmitted through the antenna. But I don’t know enough about radios – especially early-1950s military aircraft radios – to know if the story is true, or if dad was pulling my leg. Can’t speak for the aircraft radios, but back in the dim dark days of the 70s, when I was into CB radio, a friend of mine put a 100 watt linear amp on his radio. He thought it would be funny to key the mike one day when I was leaning against his car near the antenna. It took about two weeks for the burn on my arm to heal. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/31 "2006-02-23T21:27:03Z")
Back in ancient times (i.e., before scanners) I was a checker in a grocery store. To run the conveyor belt, you would step on this foot pedal that was under the stand that held the cash register. It would ooch its way out of reach sometimes, and one time I had to squat down and retrieve it with my hand. This one’s cover was loose, and I touched both contacts. It knocked me on my ass, and my arm was numb, then painful the rest of the day. And I had to finish working! I got no sympathy from the boss. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/32 "2006-02-23T21:38:36Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > Hm. Also, when I was doing server repair, there was an entire sequence of Compaq Proliants that had this issue with shorting through the case. I’d go to [Doubleclick.net](http://Doubleclick.net), and the box would be down, I’d touch it and… WHEE! Reboot the whole rack! I had a home computer that’d do that. A couple times I had to do a hard reboot by pulling the power cord out of the back of the computer, and it was the second time before I realized that it was shorting through the case, rather than me accidentally (and not realizing it - because I wasn’t doing it after all) touching the prongs inside the socket on the case back. At my last job, I came in one morning to find a couple inches of water, and rising, all over the office floor. I reached down to pick up my computer’s power strip which was submersed, and got a nice little buzz in that hand and arm. Not only that, I was so smart that I continued to wander through the water, pulling out another power strip and an ominously buzzing dictation machine. I actually thought before doing the latter, but instead of discarding the idea and leaving, I found something that I assumed wasn’t terribly conductive (yardstick, maybe) and fished it out that way. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/33 "2006-02-24T00:48:26Z")
This tended to be a little nastier than the home computer. Dual 400 watt hot-swap power supplies, one of which was shorting across a bare metal case. Ow. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/34 "2006-02-24T02:13:37Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > This tended to be a little nastier than the home computer. Dual 400 watt hot-swap power supplies, one of which was shorting across a bare metal case. > > Ow. Painful! Yeah, mine was more like a very unpleasant tingle plus my hand vibrating. The experience during the flood was rather worse. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/35 "2006-02-24T04:36:59Z")
I have only had one experience with a real shocker. I attibute this to my being exceedingly cautious about electricity plus being a little on the cowardly side. When I was taking the course in Electrical Power the team I was with in the lab was running some tests on a large motor. The work benches had two big circuit breakers with all the innards right out in the open. The 220 V. dc motor field supply was connected through these breakers on our work bench. There was a large carbon contact on each breaker and they stuck up slightly above the back rail on the bench. The instructor told us all to listen up while he went through the procedure we would be using. I had my shirt sleeves rolled up and I casually leaned over to rest my arm on the back rail. In doing so my left forearm bridged across the two carbom contacts on the breakers. I thought someone had pulled my arm out by the roots. My arm and shoulder ached for a couple of hours after. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673/36 "2006-02-24T05:17:35Z")
My friends had a big lovable dog that one day inexplicably lifted its leg and let fly right on an AC outlet in their hallway. I didn’t witness it, but I did witness the way the dog comically gave the outlet the _widest_ allowable berth (casting waring glances at it over its shoulder) every time it absolutely _had_ to go through the hallway, for a long time thereafter. …and then there was the time I made a jacob’s ladder out of a big honkin’ transformer, a 2X4, some coat-hangers, and finishing nails. Turns out that a desirable quality in a jacob’s ladder is that the rods don’t swing down suddenly towards you while you’re admiring the arc. Ouch. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-tell-ya-its-shocking/345673.md?page=1)