My Star-Trek Moment

[andrewducker]

So, octopoid_horror asked if my new ceramic knife could be smuggled onto planes.

And I wondered how I could tell if a metal detector would be able to pick it up (short of finding some magnets and waving them at it carefully.

And then draxar pointed out that I could download a metal detector for my phone.

Because it has a compass built into it, and can thus tell when metal objects are being waved at it.

And it worked perfectly (and no, I cannot smuggle my kitchenware onto flights).

And suddenly I feel even more like I'm living in Star-Trek.

Comments

[pseudomonas]

Presumably it only detects ferrous metals?

[andrewducker]

One assumes so.

[princealbert.livejournal.com]

IIRC they embed a 'bullet' of metal in the ceramic blades handles to show up on scanners. It was due to prison visiting rather than airports.

[andrewducker]

Yup, it's the handle that clearly has a chunk of metal inside of it.

Prison makes more sense than airports, but I can see why it's useful in either case.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Can you de-gauss it?

[andrewducker]

Good question.

How would one go about it?

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

I don't think that would work. De-gaussing is used to prevent passive detection of a magnetic anomaly that is producing a variation in a static magnetic field. Metal detectors work by creating an alternating magnetic field that induces eddy currents in nearby metal that thereby affect the original field. I suppose you could have an active system that would work on a similar basis to sound cancellation, but doing so without enough wiring to itself set off a metal detector might be difficult!

[rosamicula.livejournal.com]

jsuddenly I feel even more like I'm living in Star-Trek

Surely the script is better.

[andrewducker]

The dialogue is better, but I don't have Patrick Stewart's delivery.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

My Star Trek moment came at work on Friday when one of our secretaries came in wearing a short blue jersey dress and black boots, rather like this:
http://www.buycostumes.com/Star-Trek-Classic-Blue-Dress-Deluxe-Adult-Costume/60289/ProductDetail.aspx?REF=AFC-creator&AID=10425830&PID=4038360&SID=SpockBluePg

[joexnz.livejournal.com]

alan would like to know which app, the one he downloaded is buggy

[andrewducker]

It's just called "Metal Detector".

[joexnz.livejournal.com]

crashcrashcrashcrash, apparently

[andrewducker]

How odd. It's tiny, and all it does is give my a green line that shows how close a piece of metal is. I wonder what Alan's done to his phone...

[hano.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of Raven in Snowcrash with his glass knives. Also, manufacturers tend to make sure there's metal on the blade itself, usually as some kind of coating, such that it'll show up on your average airport/prison metal detector. (at least I'm assuming that's one way in which prisons screen visitors, never having been to one myself.)

[andrewducker]

In this case, metal in the handle.

[calum]

Proper metal detectors will detect non-ferrous metals too. (in fact, they can often tell ferrous and non-ferrous apart).. They just need the metal to be conductive. I suspect the iphone detector will only detect ferrous metal

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

This would have been better if Julie had walked in on you waving your phone at the knife, without having seen the comments I made about it. She would have thought you were an insane person, because knives do not make telephone calls. :-D