I can feel electricity in insulated cables - or even someone's skin if they are holding something plugged in

This happened tonight and having done some limited experiments I've realised that I can do this but my wife can't.

Since I was a teenager I've known that if I run my finger lightly along an insulated electrical cable(*), I can feel the "brrrrr" of the electricity if it's plugged in to the mains. I can't feel it if my finger is held motionless on the cable.

Tonight, I touched my wife's foot when she was holding her iPad that was plugged into her charger and I felt the same effect.

We did a blind test where I closed my eyes, and from running my finger along her foot I could tell if she was holding her iPad or not,

We then swapped places, and she couldn't repeat what I did.

This got me thinking - is my sense of touch really *that* sensitive?

Anyone else experience this? I've read nothing about anyone else being able to sense this, but it never really occurred to me to look into it.

This isn't a vague "woo woo" "I can feel electricity" thing - it's verifiably an effect and a definite conscious experience - and give or take I could probably tell the frequency of the AC electricity if I touched cables with sufficiently different frequencies of AC (let's say 30, 50, 70 Hz).

(*) the bog-standard flex that is used on common household appliances - especially (going back a few decades) rubber-insulated ones - but PVC works almost equally well.

Parents
  • I thought Apple stuff had switched-mode power warts - the frequency of any electricity/noise coming up the lead would be many kHz.  

    Are you sure you've not got dodgy earths in your house???   Smiley

  • It's happened to me in every house I've ever lived in or visited.

    Yes the Apple charger will be switched mode, and filtered, so the differential-mode current in the charging cable will be dc with a tiny overlay of several kHz noise-like grunge. 

    I might repeat the experiment with the assistance of an oscilloscope to see if it sheds any light.

    What it *feels* like is that the electric field alters the elastic compliance of my skin, and/or the friction coefficient between my finger and whatever I'm touching, so that when I move my fingers there's a sensation of a vibration that follows the instantaneous strength of the e-field & gets perceived as a vibration with the same frequency as the current.

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  • It's happened to me in every house I've ever lived in or visited.

    Yes the Apple charger will be switched mode, and filtered, so the differential-mode current in the charging cable will be dc with a tiny overlay of several kHz noise-like grunge. 

    I might repeat the experiment with the assistance of an oscilloscope to see if it sheds any light.

    What it *feels* like is that the electric field alters the elastic compliance of my skin, and/or the friction coefficient between my finger and whatever I'm touching, so that when I move my fingers there's a sensation of a vibration that follows the instantaneous strength of the e-field & gets perceived as a vibration with the same frequency as the current.

Children