a calculator, different TVs and a computer are close to a very powerful six-inch

neodymium magnet.

Some will survive, others... well let's just see...

First up is the iPAQ.

No, not iPad - the iPAQ. This

is a PDA which is like a smartphone just without the phone...

When put on the magnet the PDA decides to turn itself on.

It never did before. Other times it completely reboots.

However it does seem to work even when directly on top of the magnet.

The magnet did break the battery lid

into pieces but there was no instant electrical death.

The PDA did refuse to turn on at some point

even though I held the battery in place. This was solved by taking the battery out

and putting it back in. The lid however... never worked again...

The calculator worked flawlessly. It could do simple math

Hehehe, dividing by zero was still a major error

And even a sine-wave graph looked alright.

It does help

that the backplate and battery lid are held by screws. Very impractical when

changing batteries

but good for fighting a magnet.

Next on the test bench is a 21 inch TV.

Let's first try my largest ferrite magnet on it.

It is much smaller and ferrites are around 10 times weaker then neodymium magnets

so we should see a big difference in the effect on the TV.

The four-inch ferrite magnet has an effect at around 30 centimeters from the TV.

The six-inch neodymium magnet at around 150 centimeters.

At zero distance the difference in strength is very noticeable and gives a quite beautiful show. Enjoy.

But why does the image react on the magnet?

Here's the simplified explanation.

The image is drawn using electrons that have an electric charge

and therefore react in a magnetic field. A transformer delivers high voltage to

a vacuum tube

and this electron gun that emits electrons. The electrons coming

out of the electron gun are focused to a beam using coils that are basically

electromagnets.

The coils can also guide the beam from side to side

and up and down and in this way draw the image.

But the electrons will also follow a strong external magnetic field.

This almost looks like a screensaver - although

it is doing anything but saving the screen.

Flat screens don't use electron beams so they are not affected in the same way.

I did however manage to dim the background light on this LCD TV.

Alright, this is the final fight.

I recommend at least two meters distance between this big magnet

and a computer but here we are at 1 meter. The monitor is reacting to the magnet

but no instant death for the computer. Let's go closer.

At 60 centimeters

the monitor is messed up but still no dead computer.

It may have lost data but the picture I test with

is still there.

No more mercy. Let's try at 8 centimeters. This is dangerous.

Not only for the computer.

The monitor is throwing up all over the place. The computer is still working...

To avoid destroying myself

I wouldn't go closer than four centimeters which is painful enough...

After adjusting the screen I opened the picture again.

But

the picture folder seemed to be gone?

Uh oh!

It's dead.

Later, the mousepointer froze and I realized

that the computer was dying in front of me...

I killed it.

I have officially killed a computer with my 6-inch neodymium magnet.

What?!?

Huh?!?

Without any error message

the computer had restarted.

After an error message

about time and date not set I pressed F1 to boot

and all I got was a blinking cursor and plinking hard drive.

Maybe it would help if I removed the magnet. That is...

if I can...

Ahhh, the poor thing...

Whoooops - disk controller failure. That's bad...

Later I tried to restart it again and received different errors.

It never recovered.

The conclusion of this video is

that neodymium magnets must be kept away from things you don't want to destroy

but you can have a large neodymium magnet in your home

without blowing all the electronics and having air planes crashing into your backyard.

At two meters distance from even the 6-inch magnet

the Earth's magnetic field is the strongest so just keep a distance.

Remember to subscribe because in one of my upcoming videos

I will dissect the hard drive and see if there's any physical damage.

I will also try to explain how they managed to put a neodymium magnet inside

all hard drives.

Thanks for watching!