What is the Science Behind Electric Shock and Grounding?

[Per Oni]

SC, the forces you are talking about are very real, and are not unlike the ones you will find in discharge tubes. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_glow_discharge#Basic_operating_mechanism
In that article you can see separation of +ve ionic clouds attracted to the negative electrode.

If you come round to doing your mercury experiment, you must also take in account the pinching effect of the magnetic field due to the current. Unfortunately no experiment is ever simple! See:
http://www.df.lth.se/~snorkelf/Longitudinal/node3.html
This is part of a bigger article full of interesting stuff about conduction forces.

 

[sophiecentaur]

Oh I remember the pinch effect. I went to the Culham labs in the mid 60s and they were containing plasma that way. They had a MegaFarad capacitor bank, I seem to remember - and none of your low voltage 'supercapacitors' in those days. This was a whole room full of great cylindrical jobs.
Re your link: at least all the mercury would be liquid!
!