When I was growing up, you had to keep magnets away from computers and other electronics. Magnets could single-handedly wipe drive and disk, and could play havoc with cables transmitting data. It was generally taught to me that these two should not be mixed with, barring the proper housing. However, magnets are everywhere with modern electronics and computers and it’s something that has been quietly puzzling me for quite some time now. Please someone, explain how this can be. I know there is a very simple answer to it, but my brain can’t conceptualize it.
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>When I was growing up, you had to keep magnets away from computers and other electronics. Magnets could single-handedly wipe drive and disk, and could play havoc with cables transmitting data. It was generally taught to me that these two should not be mixed with, barring the proper housing. However, magnets are everywhere with modern electronics and computers and it’s something that has been quietly puzzling me for quite some time now. Please someone, explain how this can be. I know there is a very simple answer to it, but my brain can’t conceptualize it.
It is very hard to damage a magnetic storage medium, be it tape or an HDD, with a magnet. The magnet needs to be *really strong* and *really close*. Realistically that’s only ever going to be possible with something like a credit card’s exposed magnetic strip and a neodymium fridge magnet in your pocket or similar. A magnet is much more likely to cause *mechanical* damage by suddenly snapping onto some fragile component.
All other kinds electronics do not give a damn about magnetic fields as long as those magnetic fields aren’t either *moving* or *changing*.
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