Physics of mag tapes

[Francois Felix INGRAND <felix@WARBUCKS.AI.SRI.COM>]

Paul Pangaro writes:
>  I have been taking cart tapes for SMBX in and out of airport
>  security for years now, and sometimes with the same tape a dozen
>  times. Coming back from Boston recently I was met with shock from
>  the security-person that I was doing this, because "everybody
>  else passes them through by hand" and not through the x-ray
>  machine.

I am not sure that X-ray will damage your magnetic tapes... I had
rather to put them in the x-ray machine than carrying them with me
thru the metallic "door frame" detector.

Of course, it is the opposite for photographic films...

>  Anyone really know what those things do, and whether it can, over
>  repeated exposures, affect the oxide/fields on the tape?  I
>  realize "it is probably better to be safe than sorry" but I was
>  curious about the known realities here.

If you look on the written notice coming with the tapes or the
floppydisks, they mention magnetic field as a potential hazard, but
not x-ray.

>  Best,
>  PANgaro

Felix