shocks when going through airport security

I have noticed time after time that when I put my aluminum unibody McBP through the airport x-ray machine I get a whopping static shock when I touch the case on the other side. Is this damaging to the machine, and how can I prevent it? I have little enough hair as it is. 😉

MacBook Pro 15", Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Mar 6, 2009 9:05 AM

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6 replies

Mar 7, 2009 12:02 AM in response to zenpicker

Do you have the computer resting on a case or sleeve or something? I googled "what comes out of x-rays?" and this page came up: http://www.ehow.com/about4678475what-radiation-comes-out-xrays.html

I looked at Wikipedia's page on electromagnetic radiation. Here is the link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_radiation

Could this possibly be the reason for the shocks? It sounds justifiable to me. I dunno though. I hope this helps.

Mar 8, 2009 10:39 PM in response to zenpicker

If I had to guess I'd say it's because you're walking around in your socks on carpet and thus building up a static charge on your body. The MBP is not somehow storing up energy from the X-ray machine itself.

Incidentally, walking around in socks is a leading cause of male pattern baldness! 😉 At least according to the rumor I'd like to get started here as part of this thread...

Mar 21, 2009 6:44 PM in response to zenpicker

After reading this thread for the first time I was skeptic, but I got a large shock today when I went to pick up my MBP 17 unibody from the plastic container after it went through the x-ray machine. It was a hard floor, no carpet and I was not wearing any wool, sweater or jacket.. just a button down, jeans (and no shoes). Not sure where the shock came from...

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shocks when going through airport security

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