Hello. While working the other day a customer had told me that her cell phone had demagnitized her debit card... Can that really happen?

No way this can't happen.
1 it has to be in the same pocket as the debit card
2 The cell phone is plastic

Not so, some cell phones that are clamshells, may have a magnet that keeps the phone shut. I know blackberry's have some sort of magnetic thing that locks the phone if it's in the holster.

quote:

Originally posted by wilsonthnkharder:
Not so, some cell phones that are clamshells, may have a magnet that keeps the phone shut. I know blackberry's have some sort of magnetic thing that locks the phone if it's in the holster.

Phones themselves close mechanically, not magnetically.

And the magnets in cell phone cases are nowhere near powerful enough to demagnetize a credit card.

If flip-phones had a magnet, it would erase all the data on the SIM card and memory. Ratranger was right when he said they close mechanically. And even if they were closed magnetically, it wouldn't demagnitize a card. If you watch the electric eel destroys credit card segment, you'll see that it took a massive electromagnet to erase the data on a card.

The data on a SIM card is stored in flash memory. A magnet will not erase it.

There was a discussion on this board, not long ago, about cell phones erasing hotel key cards. I suggest you read it as there is a lot of good information there. Here's the link to it.

http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/75019...761911929#2761911929

And you're right, BlackDenim, about that electric eel episode. I was really surprised how much it took to erase the magnetic strip on a card.

Yeah, I think the Mythbusters need to go further into this magnet thing. There are a lot of people who seem to think that the smallest magnet can erase your laptop, ipod or cell phone... My fiancé keeps telling me that my magnetic bracelet (you know the kind that is supposed to help with pain, I don't know if it works but it's pretty) is going to erase my laptop's hard drive... I think it's a complete myth... I have however had several hotel key cards get erased, we theorized that it was because it was next to my cell phone when I received a call, I don't have proof though, you could check that out too.

I really think the problem is that many of those hotel key cards are just, flat out, unreliable. About a month ago, I checked into a hotel and was give one of those key cards. It worked the first time I entered the room but after that it wouldn't work and I had to get a new one. The card was nowhere near a cell phone or any other electronic or magnetic device the entire time I had it before it failed. Either the magnetic strip on the cards are bad or the writers they use to program the cards aren't magnetizing the strips strong enough.

As for a small magnet erasing a hard drive, it just isn't going to happen. If you ever take apart an old HD, you will find two super magnets mounted a few millimeters from the disks. These magnets are part of the head positioning motor. If they don't erase the data, nothing outside the drive will. By the way, old hard drives are a great source of neodymium super magnets.

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First of all, I want to kiss you on the mouth for not asking if cell phones could pop popcorn! This gives me the faintest glimmer of hope for the future of humanity.

>>I really think the problem is that many of those hotel key cards are just, flat out, unreliable.

Yup. Whenever I check into a hotel I get two room keys and no mini-bar key (I really don't need a $7.50 snicker bar - even at 2:00am).

One of the room keys goes in my wallet, and the other gets hidden somewhere in a public area of the hotel. This minimizes the times that I lock myself out of my room and have to convince someone at the front desk who I am while standing in the lobby in a soaking wet bathing suit with no ID.

It also makes it possible for me to call a coworker that's still at the hotel to grab something I forgot when I headed to the venue.

hi. i just received a health tip telling me not to use my mobile phone when the battery is down to the last bar, as the radiation is a thousand times more.

You should definitely heed that advice.

Thank goodness it only goes down to one bar. If it went down to 1/1000th bar the phone would go off like a nuke!

and actually a few of you are wrong, in my last cell phone i had it was an LG and it had tiny magnets behind the rubber bumbers right above the screen on the inside that helped keep it closed; i'm not saying that i think that this is anywhere close to saying that this myth is plauseable (which its not) i'm just saying that they do have magnets in them just so all you would know

quote:

Maan wrote:
hi. i just received a health tip telling me not to use my mobile phone when the battery is down to the last bar, as the radiation is a thousand times more.

Relax. That’s totally wrong. The “radiation” from a cell phone is the same regardless of battery charge.

It's the signal strength "bars" that are an indication of how much power the phone will put out, not the battery level indicator. When you are located farther from a cell tower, the number of bars that show signal strength will go down. The farther you are away from the tower, the more power the phone will emit. But you still need not worry. The maximum the phone can put out is about 1/2 watt. That's not anywhere near enough to do any damage to anything. Not your brain, nor eggs, nor popcorn and not even your hotel key card.

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I don't know about cell phones, but in my comp. tech. class I used a hard drive magnet to erase another kids hard drive to make my grade better. I just rubbed it over the surface, I've braken those things down and they're pretty sensitive.

GSM phones can put out up to 2W in the 850/900MHz range, and upto 1W in the 1800/1900MHz range.

This could be a good idea for a show, an independent study of how cell phone radiation affects stuff(humans). Too many bad studies out there that were conducted incorrectly with questionable conclusions.

For the debit card magnetic strip to be erased, it would have to have a few passes by a magnit. And I do not think it matters the strength of the magnit.

>>
in my comp. tech. class I used a hard drive magnet to erase another kids hard drive to make my grade better.
<<

Aside from this being a delightful story about cheating and sabotaging another student - I don't buy it.

quote:

Originally posted by spork:
>>
in my comp. tech. class I used a hard drive magnet to erase another kids hard drive to make my grade better.
<<
Aside from this being a delightful story about cheating and sabotaging another student - I don't buy it.

Nor do I.