Electrically Sensitive?

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

So, I am about to get in a huge fight with my family because the television cable downstairs shocks me but not them and they say I'm crazy.
They say tv cables can't conduct electricity.
I clearly get a slight shock from the wire.
Can it conduct electricity?

Serpent

i must ask. If electricity is not going through that cable, what else is? juice?

edit:
so yes, it can and does.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

Is there anyway I can empirically prove this?
I am so fucking pissed off.
They looked at me like I was crazy.

blincoln

With a multimeter?

I wouldn't be surprised if the difference was that they are not grounded when touching it and you are. I used to get shocked by electrical devices fairly frequently when I lived on the ground floor and didn't have my thick-soled boots on.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

Yeah, they were standing on a partially rubber rug, and I wasn't.

Gihgehls

Why are you touching the cable? shouldn't it be plugged into the tv?

Ruckus

Cable TV Cable just carries a signal, which, while being electrical in nature, is not a powerful enough to shock you.

The most likely explanation is that you yourself are generating a Static electrical charge and the cable is grounding you when you contact it.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

Ruckus wrote: »

Cable TV Cable just carries a signal, which, while being electrical in nature, is not a powerful enough to shock you.

The most likely explanation is that you yourself are generating a Static electrical charge and the cable is grounding you when you contact it.

It was connected to the television, which was on and not to the cable box.
So I was picking up electricity from it.
I was barefooted and standing on concrete.
I think this case is solved.

Thanatos

Ruckus wrote: »

Cable TV Cable just carries a signal, which, while being electrical in nature, is not a powerful enough to shock you.

The most likely explanation is that you yourself are generating a Static electrical charge and the cable is grounding you when you contact it.

Bullshit. I've gotten zapped several times by live coaxial cable. You pull the head off, and it's definitely enough to wake you up.

Gihgehls

Yes I have put my tongue to a coax cable and it does indeed carry some current. That shit has to travel pretty far.

Hybrid

I know I get a sort of shock from grabing the red white and yellow cables from a console while its running.
I think Ive gotten it from an antenna cable too.

blincoln

It's probably not from the actual signal in the cable (whether it's coax or A/V RCA or whatever) but that the cable is connected to the common ground in one or more devices. When you touch one of the contacts at the same time that your feet are in contact with e.g. a concrete floor on the ground level of a house, you are providing a shorter path to ground (for the entire device or set of devices) than through the house wiring.

Thanatos

blincoln wrote: »

It's probably not from the actual signal in the cable (whether it's coax or A/V RCA or whatever) but that the cable is connected to the common ground in one or more devices. When you touch one of the contacts at the same time that your feet are in contact with e.g. a concrete floor on the ground level of a house, you are providing a shorter path to ground (for the entire device or set of devices) than through the house wiring.

I doubt this, if only because I've also been zapped by the sorts of power output you get from a typical A/V setup, and it's worse by a couple orders of magnitude.

Ruckus

I thought he meant the incoming signal cable from the Cable Co connection. I've never gotten the slightest shock from those.

But I could see a <10 foot coax connected to a powered device carrying a bit more power.

I probably wouldn't notice though, due to various levels voltage and amperage I've been exposed to (accidentally and intentionally).

Thanatos

Ruckus wrote: »

I thought he meant the incoming signal cable from the Cable Co connection. I've never gotten the slightest shock from those.

But I could see a <10 foot coax connected to a powered device carrying a bit more power.

I probably wouldn't notice though, due to various levels voltage and amperage I've been exposed to (accidentally and intentionally).

I have absolutely been shocked by that incoming coaxial connection. It's not a big shock, but you can definitely feel it.

blincoln

Hmm, interesting. I guess I worded my theory badly anyway, since unless the device was totally ungrounded otherwise, you wouldn't get the full jolt of providing it. You'd get the same amount of volts as the ground connection, but I think the amperage would be some fraction thereof, because of the whole 1/R(total) = 1/R(normal) + 1/R(you) thing.