The Effects of Magnetism on Disk Purpose: When the computer diskette was created the fear of losing information on them from magnets was born. Since then, diskettes have become nearly obsolete, leaving them open for experimentation. This Bi-week, Scientific AmeriKen will attempt to dispel this fear of magnets.

Hypothesis: Because a warning does exist on all diskette boxes, it will have to be the hypothesis of this experiment that magnetism in some way is harmful to diskettes.

Equipment: Needed for this experiment is one magnet, a computer, a diskette, and some computer files.

Procedure: The first step is to load several files onto the diskettes. Hold the magnet roughly an inch away from the disk and run it horizontally across. Place the disk in the computer and observe any changes to the files or the disk. Repeat this procedure with varying duration of magnet contact.

Observations:

Duration of Magnet contact	Effect on Diskettes
Magnet was swiped over disk once from a distance of 1 inch	Information was intact, disk functioned normally.
Magnet came into contact with disk and swiped across the disk once.	Information was intact, disk functioned normally.
Magnet came into contact with disk and was swiped back and forth across the disk 3 times.	Information on the disk was gone. Disk had to be reformatted to work again.
Magnet came into contact with disk, entire surface of disk was rubbed by the magnet.	Information on disk was gone. Disk had to be reformatted to work again.
Magnet was attached to disk and left for a period of 10 minutes.	Information was lost. In addition, disk giving a "Invalid media or Track 0 is bad" error and the disk was unable to work again.

Conclusion: It seems that indeed the warnings on the disk are correct that magnets tend to have adverse effects on diskettes. It is significant to note that direct contact seems necessary for this effect, probably dependent on the strength of the magnet. It should also be noted that just because the manufacturers are correct in their warnings about magnets, Scientific Ameriken will not yield their correctness on other things that may be harmful to disk.

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