Question!!!

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Why is it that when you put a fan facing a computer monitor (both fan and monitor turned on)... the monitor gets all jumpy and rippley?

one thing i HAVE noticed:

1. it doesn't matter if air is blowing on the monitor.... you can turn it away and the monitor will still get weird... plus when you turn the fan off... its still blowing air but the monitor doesn't go crazy...

[Mithrandir]

Magnets. If you keep the fan there long enough, you'll cause permanent damage to the monitor.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

oh so there are MAGNETS in the fan....

[Mave]

(O_O)....I learnt something new and important today.

[blkmage]

Could that be why turning on a monitor in a lab will make the monitor beside it wonky for a second?

[Stephen]

This brings about another question. Why are there magnets in fans?

[Slater]

because the fan has a motor. Even the most basic of motors have magnets. Electrical Physics will tell you how they work.

Kewl fact of the day: Generators are motors working in reverse - literally. I hooked two generators up together, turned the crank on one and watched the crank on the other turn all by itself.

[Nate]

There are six ways to produce electricity, represented by the wonderful memory aid:

Lucky Charms make poor health food.

L - Light

C - Chemical

M - Magnets

P - Piezoelectric

H - Heat

F - Friction

Of these six types, magnets are the most readily available, easiest to work with, most productive for the size, and safest, hence why they are in most common motors. :3

[Stephen]

Well there, ya learn somthing new every day. I will have to tell my parents about this so they don't put a fan next to the monitor like they did last summer...^^;;

[Fsiphskilm]

Magnets don't

[Mithrandir]

*looks innocent*

I-didn't-do-it-nobody-saw-me-do-it-you-can't-prove-anything...

Ahem. Oh, sorry... Um, yeah. IANAEE, so take this as coming from a random person.

Why two monitors go "wonky." The way a monitor works involves using electromagnets to route photons onto the pixles. If the electromagnets are not the only magnetic field around, you'll find that the picture distorts. The stronger the field, the more distortion you'll see. Theoretically, with enough time and equipment, you could control the wonkiness, and (for example) invert or reverse the picture being displayed on a monitor.

Fast fact: Did you know that monitors must be self-calibrating to work all around the world? This is due to the fact that the earths magnetic field will actually have the same "wonkiness" factor that an electric fan will have. This is why a really cheap Television slated for distrobution in, say, Brazil will look "wonky" when viewed in Alaska.

As for bad things to put near monitors, poorly sheilded speakers are the worst. I permanently ruined a $1200.00 monitor this way. >.< I put the speaker up on top of it, and had one of those funky screen savers running so I didn't notice the distortion. When I went to use that computer (I have lots, so it was a few weeks) I noticed it was not very pretty. Degausing appeared to help a little, but that may have just been my pragmatic side requiring assurance that it wasn't "that bad."

[Mangafanatic]

Magnets ruin computer!? Oh dear. *Removes the giant horse magnet from its place adorning the top of her computer.*

[Mithrandir]

Well, if it's a weak magnet, and it's far enough away from the back of the monitor, you're probably not going to notice too much bleed.

(Of course, if one has a flat panel monitor, the whole discussion is moot anyway, lol).

[Mr. SmartyPants]

and don't forget... magnets can destroy harddrives

[Slater]

question... do mouse cables have coaxially-protected wiring? I'm thinking that it's possible that my bass speaker's magnetic field (the bass isn't shielded tho the speakers are) is inducing an electic current in the wire that runs from my mouse to my computer... although I'm not sure how... I know that the Bass gives of a magnetic field, but that doesn't induce a current. Magnetic fluxes do... do bass speakers generate a magnetic flux?

Edit: Yes, I know that it's a different case than the monitor thing... monitors involve shooting electrons at a phosporous screen, wires involve shooting electrons down a "pipe"... maybe they are kinda related...

[Arnobius]

Makes me wonder. I have a laser printer on my desk about a foot away from my CRT and 2 feet away from my cpu and right next to my external hd

Is this incredibly stupid, or it OK?

[Mithrandir]

FRWL: I wouldn't be surprised if SOME current was being induced in your line, but I would be surprised if you noticed anything unusual.

AH: Provided everything is shielded adequately no, you have no issues. Well, at least your system has no issues.

[Slater]

well, my mouse has been acting very unusual... it likes to double click when I click it once and stuff. Of course, the other option is that it might just be a bad capacitor in the mousebutton itself, discharging the electricity irregularly when pushed...

[Mr. SmartyPants]

wow... everyones suddenly become paranoid about their hardware...

[Slater]

and it's ALL UR FAULT!!!11!!1

jk

[Mr. SmartyPants]

mwahahahaha

[Mr_Anderson]

uh o, maybe i shouldn't put that fan near my aincient n64 to cool it off...

[Mr. SmartyPants]

why would you have to cool off your n64?

[Mithrandir]

To my knowledge putting a fan by an n64 would not have much of an adverse affect. YMMV.

[Slater]

right, the magnetic field generated by the motor wouldn't be strong enough to knock out any data or cause any internal currents inside the console I don't think.

[Mithrandir]

...at least not the motor in an average consumer fan...

[Slater]

well ja... hey, let's try it with a jet-plane motor!

[dragonshimmer]

Wow, that's odd....and interesting.

I had this discussion with someone this other night but it was about cell phones and monitors instead.

If my cell phone is near my computer, about five seconds before it rings, my monitor will distort pretty badly. It's kind of interesting, because if I'm talking with someone on AIM or YIM, the screen will distort and I can say "Phone" and put up an away message before my phone rings. It does the same thing when I receive a text message.

[Technomancer]

Magnets don't run out... it's just amazing.

I think one day we'll make a sort of magnet motor that runs it'self. Of course that might break a few laws of conservation but...

IN THIS HOUSE, WE OBEY THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS!!

If my cell phone is near my computer, about five seconds before it rings, my monitor will distort pretty badly. It's kind of interesting, because if I'm talking with someone on AIM or YIM, the screen will distort and I can say "Phone" and put up an away message before my phone rings. It does the same thing when I receive a text message.

I expect it's becuase your phone will be drawing much more current than it normally does in order to generate the ring tone. Since the changing current will generate a magnetic field (Good ol' Maxwell ), this will cause some distortion in your monitor.

[Mithrandir]

...where IS that from...?