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Re: a question about electronic devices on airplanes



I would guess it is because computers are held to stricter radiation
emission standards than are Game Boys.

Bob Sciamanda
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (ret)
trebor@velocity.net
http://www.velocity.net/~trebor
-----Original Message-----
From: Suzanne Willis <willis@NIUHEP.PHYSICS.NIU.EDU>
To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU <PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU>
Date: Friday, November 20, 1998 6:35 PM
Subject: a question about electronic devices on airplanes


Hello to all -

I have just returned from a trip to CERN (where I do my
research); being a single mother, I took along my almost-9-year-old
son, who survives overseas plane flights (as well as much of
the rest of his life) by playing GameBoy. Well, much to the
surprise and dismay of both of us, we were told on today's flights
(a short hop from Geneva to Brussels followed by a long
flight from Brussels to Chicago) that playing the GameBoy was
forbidden during *the entire flight*. However, if we had
brought along a laptop (which we didn't), it could have been
used except during takeoff and landing.

Does anyone have any insight into whether this is a sensible
precaution or not? How could a GameBoy create a worse problem
than a laptop (especially if no headphones are used)? I questioned
one of the flight attendants about this; he checked with the
cockpit and told us that in fact it would be OK on this flight
(the long one) as we were in an older airplane (a 747), but
that in the newer planes it was in fact strictly forbidden.

So, what is it, if anything about a GameBoy that would cause it
to disrupt an airplane, whereas a laptop would not?

Thanks for any thoughts (and especially for any data)!

Sue Willis

Suzanne Willis, Professor, Physics Department
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL 60115 USA
http://niuhep.physics.niu.edu/~willis/ swillis@niu.edu
phone: 815-753-0667 fax: 815-753-8565