[Jeff_Brown]

You literally flew across the room? I've been shocked a fair number of times -- the worst was when as an 11 year old I felt around in a bare light socket with my finger in Kenya, where they use 240 V -- and don't recall ever feeling pushed in any particular direction.

Indeed, that Kenya experience was terrifying precisely because I was paralyzed. I made an involuntary "aaauugh" sound and shook until the lamp fell over, which was fortunately pretty fast.

[nsxwolf]

I’ve “flown across the room” from touching a fly back transformer in a CRT. I think what really happened was I backed up trying to get away, and fell over backwards.

[throwanem]

Now you know why they call it a flyback transformer.

[ComputerGuru]

See, that's believable. I came close to that as a kid by discharging the capacitors in an old-school shoe-mount camera flash. But you don't fly back from 120VAC or even 220VAC socket. My first time as a child was accidentally electrocuting myself trying to replace the flood light on the porch and it either had an obscenely oversized bulb-screw or I was trying to remove a broken bulb screw from the socket (details are hazy). I just felt my heart suddenly racing and my body throbbing/pulsing until I managed to yank my hands away.

[tlear]

Can happen. When I was about 4 I managed to get my finger on the contacts of the plug as I inserted it. This was an old USSR plug... I next remember being in the middle of the room. I thought one of my parents sneaked up on me an grabbed me.. but there was no-one around. I had no idea what happened and kinda just ignored it. I then got electrocuted in shop class in my teens and had the AHA moment as I understood what happened to me as a kid.

[hodgesrm]

Got knocked on my tail by an electric shock as a kid--tried to extract magnets from a broken circular saw. As a precautionary measure, I had plugged it in beforehand to ensure that it really didn't work.

I don't remember anything about the shock other than finding myself on the ground afterwards. It's not implausible that you might move some distance depending how your muscles react.

Never mentioned the experience to my parents, as it did not seem that could possibly lead to any further educational benefits.

[ericbarrett]

> I made an involuntary "aaauugh" sound

I was shocked with 300V DC and the main thing I remember (more than the sensation itself) was emitting a high-pitched ululation that I'm in no way capable of deliberately recreating. It was foreign and alien coming from my own throat; by far the most terrifying part of the experience. But I was sitting on a stool and didn't fall off.

[fishtacos]

Also went through a pretty traumatic shock that paralyzed me temporarily and had me stuck to 2 metal objects I had grasped with my hands where I ended up closing the circuit.

I was told I screamed at the top of my lungs, to the point where people thought I was joking and started laughing.

The rest is just fun details from this particular trip in 1998 to a developing country in the Balkans: Had it not been for a gentleman who realized I was literally dying and not joking, I'd be dead. He ran toward me and with difficulty and a lot of force removed one of my hands from the metal bar (in the process breaking my wrist). I have zero recollection of screaming, but I was aware and in complete shock and I do remember some kind of yelling or asking for help.

Utter horror is what I recall, but not a ton of detail. (14 years of age, for context - am now twice that)

[winrid]

Your muscles can react when shocked in uncontrollable ways.

This is why if you ever touch a live wire (don't?) do it with the BACK of your fingers so that when your muscles contract, you don't grasp the wire (what happens next is left to imagination).

[stronglikedan]

> You literally flew across the room?

I imagine so, in the hyperbolic sense. I've definitely seen people being "moved" by an electric shock, whether it's the shock itself or their intense reaction to it.

[a-priori]

My wild guess is that the “fly across the room” comes from a spasm in the leg muscles, so it’s more that you involuntarily jump across the room.

[coldcode]

I think it scared the hell out of me when it made a noise and smoked more than the jolt itself.