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

[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!