Published on 12, July, 2020
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.
That's really interesting! I've never experienced this myself, but I know we're all very different, so perhaps you really are just incredibly sensitive to touch.
Indeed! And I was wondering if it provides a way of getting some objective sense about *how* sensitive to touch I am. I never thought I was particularly sensitive (apart from the aversion I have to sandpaper, sand, wooden spoons and chalk!) but of course I grew up thinking "I'm like everyone else" - maybe not!
Maybe it does I hate sand too - especially wet sand!