[QUOTE=BrandonR]
What, wrap em in aluminum/tin foil? That’s pretty much all you need to do to create a Faraday cage around them and block the radio waves. Oops.
[/QUOTE]
But it’d be awkward to either carry a roll around with you or go borrow some from the paper goods department.
[QUOTE=Morelin]
Actually, holding them over the gates would prevent the alarm from going off, but think how silly a thief would look trying to nonchalantly hold their stolen goods over their head.
[/QUOTE]
You might have to hold it way over your head, because somehow those fields extend up at least to head level, IME. What I was getting at with the keys is that you can spin it at a reasonable pace, even right in the middle of the field, and it’ll interfere with it enough to not set the door off. Now, you’d look silly doing that, too.
[QUOTE=brazil84]
It occurs to me that if the anti-theft gate were really capable of frying a fish brain, it would also be capable of harming some humans, e.g. giving an old person a stroke.
[/QUOTE]
Not necessarily.
I’m willing to accept it’s not true on the basis that people have personally claimed to gave passed fish through them, but the claim isn’t nearly as ridiculous as some people here seem to think.
Fish have a very sensitive system for detecting minute electrical impulses. Even a very, very mild electric current, far to mild for a person to ever notice, can stun a fish.
I’m assuming those anti-theft barriers all work on electromagnetic radiation transponders, in which case they’re as safe for fish as for people. However for people who don’t have a PhD in electrical engineering it’s an equally safe assumption that they work by induction transponders of the same type used to regulate traffic lights. In that case they will be generating an electromagnetic field betwen the plates, and such a field could very easily stun a fish.
Does anyone have a reference or sufficient experience to confirm that no Wal-Mart deives use induction technology? If not then we have to be very careful in claiming this is a myth. There is certainly a plausible mechanism by which such a device could harm fish.
Somebody go to Walmart and buy a goldfish. Walk in and out a few times between the device panels. Tell us how they didn’t die, when you get back to your computer please.
[QUOTE=Blake]
Does anyone have a reference or sufficient experience to confirm that no Wal-Mart deives use induction technology? If not then we have to be very careful in claiming this is a myth. There is certainly a plausible mechanism by which such a device could harm fish.
[/QUOTE]
Most (possibly all) Walmarts use an acousto-magnetic EAS system, which uses a very low-power extremely low-frequency RF signal. Fish friendly, I should think.
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord]
Somebody go to Walmart and buy a goldfish. Walk in and out a few times between the device panels. Tell us how they didn’t die, when you get back to your computer please.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Harmonious Discord]
Better yet have somebody use their cellphone to record a video of the last request, and post it on youtube.
[/QUOTE]
That won’t get any views. What you do is first, someone walks through it several times with the fish, then a second person (or maybe an overreacting rent-a-cop or off-duty moonlighting police officer) tases the guy holding the fish. Then you see if the fish is still alive.
[QUOTE=Blake]
However for people who don’t have a PhD in electrical engineering it’s an equally safe assumption that they work by induction transponders of the same type used to regulate traffic lights. In that case they will be generating an electromagnetic field betwen the plates, and such a field could very easily stun a fish.
[/QUOTE]
Yes! Not having a PhD in electrical engineering that’s exactly what I was thinking.
Of course, I was also just thinking “uh, okay. If the Navy can make whales beach themselves, maybe Wal-Mart can kill goldfish. I know who I’m going to ask when I get home though.”
