By touching the metal pole would it shock me?

Question

Say i took an extention cord- and plugged it into the receptical. Then took the other end and cut it off. Then stripped the black wire bare, about a foot back and wrapped it around a small metal pole stuck in the ground-Qt. is?- If I touched the pole would it shock me? If not why? In what way would it?

Answer 1

Why don't you try this:

Wrap the wire around the pole about 12 inches above the point at which it enters the ground (the dirt), then touch the pole above the point where the wire is attached.

Reverse the wire so it is now higher than the point where you touch the pole.

Report your results back here!

Electricity usually takes the path of least resistance to travel to ground. In theory, the first example should cause the flow to go directly to ground, rather than up the pole and then down through your body to ground.

The second example reaches your hand before the electrons can flow to ground through the pole, so it should go through your body first and out your shoes/feet to ground. Some should also pass through the pole to ground here.

If the circuit breaker didn't open, the flow of electricity would give you a shock at the least and kill you at the worst. Don't play with electricity by touching it -- use a volt-ohm meter to measure the voltage and current. Otherwise you could be the star of Jackass! But only once!

By the way, don't put the plug into the receptacle first -- do all the wiring and then plug it in, as the wire will be conducting electricity the entire time it is plugged in.

Answer 2

Yup and probably lethally. The standard practice in the US for house wiring is that the neutral is white (no voltage there) and the line is black (the color of death). Not hard to remember. The pole stuck in the ground complicates things, because you would probably pop a circuit breaker. And, BTW, this is not a dumb question. It is just the way I learned about elementary electricity when I was younger.

Answer 3

Yes it could still shock you, as you could be a better conductor than the ground (and unless the pole is deep into moist ground, this will be the case. You would at least be shocked and maybe electrocuted).

Answer 4

yes if u r bare footed as our body is a good conductor.

Answer 5

may kill you...may just make you wiggle around a bit....if u were not using fuses or breakers you would definitely get zapped and possibly could start a localized power outage....

Answer 6

yes