Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!indri!ames!oliveb!amdahl!esf00 From: esf00@uts.amdahl.com (Elliott S. Frank) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: Mac as airline hand baggage Summary: Urban Legend in the making .... Message-ID: Date: 28 Jul 89 22:55:15 GMT References: <30351@cornell.UUCP> <420009@hpbbm.HP.COM> <10938@polya.Stanford.EDU> Reply-To: esf00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Elliott S. Frank) Organization: Industrial Strength Un*x (tm) Lines: 29 In article <10938@polya.Stanford.EDU> kaufman@Polya.Stanford.EDU (Marc T. Kaufman) writes: >In article <420009@hpbbm.HP.COM> bwolf@hpbbm.HP.COM (Bryan Wolf) writes: > >>Caveat regarding your data: NEVER (EVER EVER!) put your >>floppies through the X-ray thingie you have to walk through at >>security;... > >This has GOT to be on the way to becomming a new Urban Legend. First, there >are no X-rays emitted by the metal detector set ... Ummmmmm. The walk through metal detector is set off by **any** object that unbalances a circulating current. From the part of E&M that I didn't sleep through, that implies that there's a magnetic field somewhere nearby. The X-rays **from the hand baggage inspection device** may not be a problem (except for your unexposed film) but the belt motors definately generate electrical fields (can you say, "don't put any disks on the _left_ side of your Mac?"). I took a a trip in April with some of my floppies in my briefcase instead of in the camera bag and ended up with "This disk is unreadable ...." Caveat traveller ... -- Elliott Frank ...!{hplabs,ames,sun}!amdahl!esf00 (408) 746-6384 or ....!{bnrmtv,drivax,hoptoad}!amdahl!esf00 [the above opinions are strictly mine, if anyone's.] [the above signature may or may not be repeated, depending upon some inscrutable property of the mailer-of-the-week.]