In high voltage dc, electrons come from negative terminal and deposits in the positive terminal. If you touch only positive terminal, then does it suck electrons from your body?
And I understand that neutral wires are grounded at the transformer. So how can a connection between me and the ground shock me?
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Neutral becomes dangerous if there is an open, or a high resistance connection. I.e. if there is a break in the wire somewhere, or an incorrectly bonded connection, or your ground connection is poor.
What can happen is because there is no longer a good return path, voltage on the neutral wire can float up to the hot leg voltage.
There are a few different situations. Illustrating them would take… Illustrations. First reply is also correct.
Ad 1. If you are grounded and you touch a terminal that has a potential different than the ground the electricity will flow between that terminal and the ground. Its direction will depend whether the terminal had lower or higher voltage.
Ad 2. If you are getting jolted by neutral wire, this is because there are some devices that are using electricity that are on the same circuit that the socket you touched. So you basically put yourself in the circuit between that other device and ground.
Others have answered your question more directly, but I think it is important to understand:
By definition, voltage just means 2 locations have a difference in electrical charge. We ground things to all be on the same level. If something has no ground, or a bad ground, it can become elevated. An elevated electrical device might still have 12V DC between it’s terminals, but you are at a different voltage that might be higher or lower than the negative terminal.
Your title is not really accurate.
When YOUR body complete a with a potential (voltage )source circuit you have current flowing through you.
The hazardous voltages are typically above 50v – and most work related electrical regulations start there.
So if you are standing in or otherwise touching ground, and you touch a neutral in an AC system… which should be grounded – normally you should not be “shocked”. If there are problems in the system ( improper grounding, miswiring, electrical faults ) then the neutral conductor (wire) MAY have potential to ground and therefore it presents a hazard. So you are required to treat it as an energized conductor.
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