before you offer to help me line my hat with aluminum foil, here is my question.
I just bought a new bag from ebags that is cool but some of the reviewers complained about the magnetic flap wiping out the info on door keys and credit cards. if I use one of those aluminum wallets, will my cards be safe near that pocket?. (and please don't warn me about pick pockets.....we are off on a driving tour of MN state parks and diners)
thanks in advance :)
There are plenty of pickpockets and thieves in Minnesota. Try going to the park or a diner and leaving something in sight in your car and see what happens. I would avoid magnets near anything with a magnetic strip.
I've incapacitated more than a few magnetic key cards, since I usually keep them in a pocket and I collect souvenir magnets. Guess where they go between purchase and hotel room :-) I've never killed an ATM or credit card, but they were always in a different pocket. And maybe it was just dumb luck.
I did a little googling just now, because the question intrigued me. It seems that brief encounters with magnets generally won't affect a card but any lengthy exposure (like a couple hours cuddling with a fridge magnet) will do the trick. There is not much you can do to protect a card other than keep it away from magnetic fields. If you think putting something between a card and a magnet will do the trick, think about putting something between a magnet and a piece of metal. What material and how thick does it have to be before the magnet doesn't adhere?
I have nothing to offer except to say I am so glad you asked this question. I, too, had looked at a neat bag recently but was wary because it also had a magnetic clasp and I had the concerns you have. I had to laugh at Chani's comment since I was given a magnet last trip, shoved it in a side pocket of my purse and promptly forgot about it til i got home. I was very thankful it had not wiped anything out during the trip. That magnet was much stronger than the purse magnets I have seen.
The good thing about trying it out on a trip within the US is that if something happens it will be easier to call the bank/credit card company than if you are in an international destination.
BTW, it sounds like a fun trip!
back safely, have managed to keep cards segregated so far by shoving wallet into an inside pocket.....days I was carrying a paper back book, I made sure it was in place to be a sandwich. not ideal.....if I have real trouble I might slice the magnets out...... cuz now I'm wondering about carrying my I phone and occasionally my electronic tablet and how they might feel about this interference....
I had this happen to me last year at a hotel in LA. My evening bag had a magnetic clasp and it wiped out my hotel key card (fortunately my credit card that was in the bag was not affected). The hotel desk manager told me that they see that type of thing frequently,
I carry a Baggallini crossbody bag with a magnetic closure and have not had a problem with credit cards or ATM cards. I have not had a hotel key card since I got the bag however. I wonder if hotel cards are just not as durable as those other cards?
Some links about demagnetization:
https://www.kjmagnetics.com/blog.asp?p=magnetic-stripes
http://classroom.synonym.com/way-protect-magnetic-strips-credit-cards-18335.html
I agree about the hotel key cards. I have had several wiped out, but I have never had that problem with a credit/debit card. Plus, I have never had a problem with either my phone or ipad mini.
Did you enjoy your tour of parks and diners? Eat anything worth noting?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_shielding#Magnetic_shielding
Magnetic shielding
Equipment sometimes requires isolation from external magnetic fields.
For static or slowly varying magnetic fields (below about 100 kHz) the
Faraday shielding described above is ineffective. In these cases
shields made of high magnetic permeability metal alloys can be used,
such as sheets of Permalloy and Mu-Metal,[5] or with nanocrystalline
grain structure ferromagnetic metal coatings.[6] These materials don't
block the magnetic field, as with electric shielding, but rather draw
the field into themselves, providing a path for the magnetic field
lines around the shielded volume. The best shape for magnetic shields
is thus a closed container surrounding the shielded volume. The
effectiveness of this type of shielding depends on the material's
permeability, which generally drops off at both very low magnetic
field strengths and at high field strengths where the material becomes
saturated. So to achieve low residual fields, magnetic shields often
consist of several enclosures one inside the other, each of which
successively reduces the field inside it.Because of the above limitations of passive shielding, an alternative
used with static or low-frequency fields is active shielding; using a
field created by electromagnets to cancel the ambient field within a
volume.[7] Solenoids and Helmholtz coils are types of coils that can
be used for this purpose.
And who is going to translate this into something understandable and useful?
thanks, Frank, made me realize there was a reason I choose my college science requirements from the "botany" column
Debra, I had a fresh walleye taco that was quintessentially life altering. perfect fish, perfect red cabbage slaw.....might go back to that town just for that!! Rented a cool house near Bemidji, etc., it would be an easy walk to the tacos.
traveled with 3 single colleagues that I had never traveled before with......could go start several threads on the "travel companions" theme, but I'm trying to repress a couple of the memories.
