Cracked.com says that it is bad to idle your engine.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

For a while I used to religiously degauss it and it would pass through metal detectors.

Seems a tad esoteric. 'Splain me, Lucy?*

*[Dezi Arnaz]

[Piotrsko]

Apparently a magnetic mine trick from WW2 with destroyers to prevent them from being sunk from said mines.

What happened was I noticed that the pliers were attracting steel screws and drilling chips. Got out the old color tv degauss coil, put leatherman inside, turned on coil, demagnetized tool. Went through a couple of metal scanners carrying the tool and didn't trigger the scanner, including one at the local courthouse which was rather educational.

Did the same thing at the museum containing the Constitution which was VERY contentious as security wasn't sure what happened but were highly annoyed. So, I made an effort to degauss it an a regular basis. No priest or holy water involved

[freebeard]

Philadelphia Experiment?

That's interesting. It sounds like the detector triggers on the magnetic field. Will they not detect non-ferrous metals?

[Piotrsko]

Works on the grid dip meter process. Anything that alters the resonant frequency of the meter field is detected, at suprising ranges since the device is somewhat passive. In modern society most structural stuff is iron based which changes the field. AFAIK, does not detect non ferrous metals unless there is a large flux mass. Ceramic cutlery is not detected, hence the need for Xray or particle bombardment at airports.

I am not aware of bronze tools being used by the general population

[freebeard]

Thanks.

I would never fly [heavier-than-air] commercial. Same reason I would never use a credit card.

But I like to know how things work.