This Is Why You Never Touch Your Tongue To A Capacitor

If you are training to be a car stereo installer you should never fall for this prank.

Mark Pickins had been training at the Greenville S.C. Circuit City for three weeks. One of the car audio installers that had worked there for quit a while was helping Pickins install an amplifier in a SUV. They were having to put in two capacitors to keep the high powered stereo system from losing power at near peak volume.

When working with capacitors you have to pre-charge it to keep too much power from being pulled from your battery at first. It will burn up wiring if you just hook them to the battery without first slowly charging them from another source. A third employee had brought the two capacitors over to the SUV that they were installing them on.

Pickins said the installer tapped a screwdriver across the leads of the capacitor and then touched it to his tongue. The installer told him it was safe if you discharge it first and then he walked away. While they were working on the SUV 10 minutes later the other installer told Pickins to touch his tongue to the capacitor to “feel the tingle”. When Pickins stuck his tongue to it the capacitor it literately fried his tongue.

Apparently a capacitor has the ability to be discharged and then will somehow regain its power after sitting for a bit of time. Pickins did not know this but his co-workers did. They just didn’t expect it to be that strong. The capacitor burnt his tongue enough for a trip to the ER and led to the firing of his co-workers.