First: Let me explain that RV's have many many feet of ROMEX type cable. I will get technical later in this post but ROMEX can act as a voltage divider
Splitting line voltage (Generally) but the split can be less than even.
IF the safety ground is open (As it was on your adapter) then. YOu get hot skin
Fixing the ground, fixed. BUT this does not mean there can not be an additional problem (I would have expected about 70 volts PEAK, not RMS on the skin.. But let me get technical now)
In electronics we have a device called a Capacitor.. It consists of two metal plates with a dielectric (insulator) seperating, may be air, rubber, plastic, anything that does not CONDUCT electricity. In addition you may have multiple plates in a "Dagwood Sandwich" configuration.
The symbol is --||-- (The dashed lines are the leads, the uprights represent the two separated plates)
Well in an AC circuit they act a lot like Resistors (There are also major differences but.. Romex cable .. Electronically,, Thus becomes
---||---||---
With the 3 dashes in the center being the safety ground (The left and right are HOT and Neutral) This 'Divides' the 120 volts into 60 volts rather nicely.
SO that's the bad news.. Now the good news.
Since the "plates" (parallel wires in this case) are rather small, and the distance between them rather large compared to a real capicator.. The total capatience is actually fairly low..
This means the Reactance (Expressed in Ohms, just like Resistance, AC equivlent in this circuit) is very low so only a tiny amount of current can flow.
Still. can bite a bit.
For a much more detailed explanation.. Take AC Circuit theory at any college.. This is as far as I'm going to type.
