So, if I grab an electric fence, will it shock me. . .

If I’m holding someone else’s had?

I heard someone make the claim that he had touched an electric fence, while touching someone else. The other person (not touching the fence directly) felt the shock, but the person touching the fence did not.

I don’t see how electricity “knows” that it’s two people, or just one big mass with four grounding points.

So. . . was he FOS? I didn’t wish to try it for myself.

Also spelled as hand.

Of course you feel it – but you’re expecting it.

When you hold tightly to an electric fence, you can feel the AC thrumming along the grasping arm, which is a pretty strong sensation.

The point where you touch the second person isn’t nearly as intense a sensation – but of course you can feel it.

That’s all the other person feels though, and usually they’re not braced for it. So they jump and the shocker doesn’t.

[/electric fence was a favourite plaything when I was an extremely stupid rural kid.]

Er, that’s DC, I think. Yeah, I was equally stupid out in the country, but it was sorta fun.

Yes, yes, you will. Although my experience was with a horse so it may not be valid. Lemme just say that it hurt like shit. The horse didn’t seem to like it either, but she may have jumped more from my reaction than any pain she experienced.
-Lil

Full of shit. All the current that flows through the second person has to flow through the first person.

I thought we were the only stupid rural kids who enjoyed experimenting with electrical fences…

Ummmm…hi. My name is silenus, and I was a stupid rural kid who played with electric fences… :smiley:

I A) am a city boy, and 2) have almost a phobic fear of electricty.

How does one “play” with an electric fence? <shudder>

I talked another kid into peeing on an electric fence once (“betcha can’t hit that fence from here”). He felt it.

Now I have that Ren and Stimpy song stuck in my head!

Don’t wizz on the electric fence!

See **InvisibleWombat’s ** post!

Another game is “See if the fence is on.” Since our fence ran on a random cycle, sometimes on, sometimes off, this was a game that could amuse for days. We also used to play with a magneto and a couple of leads…see who could hold onto the wires the longest. :eek:

Not having a basic idea of electricity at the time, but have had a hand in the lightbulb socket once, I simply splashed water on it, or poked it with a stick. (The Deer-proof fence, that is.)

When I was growing up, my best friend lived on a sheep farm. His father was a big, gruff, 250+ pound VT farmer, and could grip the electric fence without wincing. He used to hold it with one hand behind his back and then shake your other hand.

Scared the living poop out of me.

That said I think he’d just learned to take the jolt, I’m fairly certain he still felt it.

Electricity just doesn’t bother some people, and these tend to be the types that loooove to tell you things like “if you grab an electric fence and then grab someone else, it doesn’t shock you!”

My grandfather loved to play with electricity, and claimed that it didn’t bother him at all. He would run exposed wires from his battery and weave them through the backseat. Then when you got nice and cozy back there he’d start the car and take off down the road while watching you flop around like a fish :D. He did a similar gag by running the wire to the door handle and yelling, “Get in! Hurry!”

He used to stop his engine by getting out and holding his fingers on the sparkplugs. He never even flinched doing stuff like that.

Just on general principles, it should be stated that an electric fence doesn’t have the full power your house sockets do (120 volts, with current flow up to 20 amps).

It’s hooked up to some sort of DC (12 volts? 24? ???) and less current I believe. So those of you who want to play with electricity, following the example of this thread, please don’t use house current. :eek:

      • Well there’s always the old favorite of telling the visiting city kid that his pee will turn blue if he whizzes on it. :smiley:

  • But the way I was told how to test if they were live without touching them was to break off a fresh tree branch about 2-3 feet long, touch one broken end to the fence and the other touch with your finger and if it’s on you will only get a small electric shock, not a large one.
    ~

I tend to agree with those who say that the fence shocks you but you are expecting it and after a few tries it’s really not so bad. When we were studying electricity in high school physics the teacher hooked up a storage batterty and an old Ford spark coil. We used to gather around, grab the negative batter terminal with a pair of pliers and try to touch the other terminal of the sparking coil. We would stand there and shiver and shake but we just couldn’t quite get our muscles to make that final grab. We also would grab the batter terminal with the pliers, hold an incadescent light bulb agains the coil terminal and watch the pretty, blue lightning jump to our fingers. Made a real pretty display in a darkened room.

I do think that such shennanigans might be a trifle dangerous for me today.

And almost surely a classroom no-no :D.

You wouldn’t want to play silly games with todays fence chargers.
they will knock you on your ass.
I’ve been bitten several times with different consequences but I still respect them all.
When you can make a full grown 1500lbs+ cow respect the wire why do you think humans can play games with fence chargers?
For those who don’t know much about electric fences:
There are a couple of ways to hook up a charger.
The most common is an insulated bare wire is hot and the other lead is simply hooked to a ground rod driven into the ground.
When a critter or object touches the hot wire and ground he/it gets a shock. Sometimes as much as 10,000 volts.
Another way to hook up is with 2 or more insulated bare wires.
1 wire is hooked up to the hot side of the charger.
The other is hooked up to the other insulated wire.
To get a shock you have to touch both wires.

Quote me above
… he/it gets a shock.
some of these chargers are so powerful they will burn off grass or weeds that touch the wire.