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.
In: 10
Well on a foundational level, electricity and magnetism are essentially two aspects of the same thing, because a changing electric field creates a magnetic field, and a changing magnetic field creates an electric field. (This is why physicists usually refer to “electromagnetism” or “electromagnetic” forces together, rather than separately.)
The main reason it used to be such an issue is we used magnetic storage, which could be wiped when exposed to a strong magnetic field. Whereas now we tend to use solid-state storage that is not affected in the same way.
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