# What would happen if mains AC frequency was much higher?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-mains-ac-frequency-was-much-higher/670446>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 5, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-mains-ac-frequency-was-much-higher/670446 "2013-10-05T17:20:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-mains-ac-frequency-was-much-higher/670446/1 "2013-10-05T17:20:30Z")

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At what frequency would it be possible to get electrocuted by simply getting near a conductor?

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-mains-ac-frequency-was-much-higher/670446/2 "2013-10-05T17:29:15Z")

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That is unlikely to happen.  
At very high frequencies, the current is subject to the “[skin effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect),” and would not penetrate to your internal organs (although you might get serious skin burns).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Dog80](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@Dog80](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dog80)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-mains-ac-frequency-was-much-higher/670446/3 "2013-10-05T17:53:24Z")

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I know about the skin effect but I don’t think it applies here.

What I had in mind is capacitive coupling. Capacitive coupling is insignificant at 50/60 Hz but there can be significant transfer of energy when power sources operate at high frequencies.

THe human body can act as a capacitor between a conductor and the ground. Is there any frequency where there can be significant coupling to get electrocuted by simply getting near a conductor?