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If you have ever run your fingers across a charging laptop and noticed a strange buzzing sensation, you’re definitely not imagining it.
Anyone with a metal-bodied laptop, especially devices like the Apple MacBook, may have experienced that odd vibrating feeling at least once, and it turns out that the science behind it is much stranger than most people realize.
The sensation usually happens when your laptop is plugged into the wall and charging.
By lightly dragging your fingertips across the metal casing, it can suddenly feel like the entire device is vibrating.
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Most people tend to assume something mechanical inside the laptop is shaking, but that’s not actually what’s happening.
Hannah Fry, who goes by fryrsquared on Instagram, has lifted the lid on what really happens.
Posting a video on social media, she explained: “The power that's coming out of your wall is huge, it's dangerous and it's pulsing back and forth 50 times a second. If you pumped all of that power straight into your laptop it would instantly melt. So what your charger block is doing is turning that violently pulsing power down into this tiny smooth safe trickle of electricity.
“Chargers however are not perfect and so some of that pulsing electricity manages to leak into the metal casing of your laptop. Your finger gives it a root to find the ground, however, you are not feeling electricity, the current is way too small to shock your nerves.
“What you are actually feeling is a sort of tactile illusion because as that current is pulsing through the casing, it is actually creating a tiny electrostatic attraction between your finger and the metal.”
This left many people amazed by the insight, with some taking to the Instagram comment sections to share their thoughts.
One user wrote: “I waited 20 years for this explanation!”
Another said: “THANK YOU! Nobody else in my family knows what I’m talking about when I say this?!”
A third person commented: “No one believed me when i said that my iPhone jitters while charging.”
And a fourth added: “I worried about this. Thought my MacBook might be faulty.”
Well there you have it, mystery solved. Your laptop isn’t faulty, instead it’s a knock-on effect of a safety feature.
So, if you notice your laptop is suddenly feeling extra ‘buzzy’, there’s probably no need to panic. It might just mean your hands are helping conduct a tiny amount of harmless stray current.
