So basically the guy the in porker was saving you money and you had a go at him!!!

I was in a car once on the phone when I was told to end the call. WTF. Yeah right how often does your mobile emit a spark, and this spark would have to penetrate the window or door and ignite the vapour.

**** me if all that happens it's just your time to go.

 

Love this thread. How many possible reasons for banning mobiles so far?

JFK was never assassinated, he was just taking a call on a miniature mobile implanted behind his ear...

 

Mobile phones work on microwave radiation which is very invasive as far as other electronic systems are concerned. It is a sensible precaution not to allow their use on an aircraft since there is a possibilty of interference either with navigation equipment or the enngine control systems, maybe even with fly by wire computerised flight control systems. They can be screened against interference from the aircraft's own radios which operate on lower frequencies but not possible to positively screen against other rf transmissions from within the aircraft.

Any rf transmission is capable of causing an electrical spark in metal objects near it and it only takes a very small spark to ignite petrol vapour if it just happens to be mixed with the right amount of air. All petrol pumps have a warning against using mobile phones near them and that is also a vitally important important warning. very easy for the pump nozzle to cause a spark by the filler cap and that is too close for comfort under any circumstances.

Les

 

At last, a scientific based argument!

 

im quite amused my the people who seem to think they are doomed if the use their phone on a fore-court, then after filling up, they plib their alarm with the remote, operating a load of solenoids all over the car before going to the shop and paying.

 

Lol at Talizman

Les

 

As for using a mobile on a plane, I'm reasonably certain it wouldn't work - you're a long way away from the transmitter (vertically) and you rip accross the cell boundaries at a serious rate...

 

Line of sight is fairly unobscured by hills, buildings etc when you're flying, though. Certainly wouls work when you're near take off/landing - there have been reported cases of people getting into trouble with attendants for refusing to hang up, I'm guessing they had a signal.

As for any RF transmission being capable of causing a spark, well that's true - put a metal item in a microwave oven and you'll see that. However, the risk of that happening with the very low intensity coming out of a mobile phone is somewhat improbable. How many times have you seen sparks leaping off the cutlery in restaraunts when people take a call? I'd be willing to bet the probability of dying in a phone-related petrol station fire is less than the probability of dying when your moving car is hit by a falling meteorite.

If you want scientific, there is a probability that at some stage, your entire brain will randomly quantum tunnel through your skull, and appear in front of your face (and this is actually true - ask any quantum physicist). The chances are however, extremely remote (billionths of a percent that it ever happens to any brain-sized mass anywhere during the history of the universe), and is another something I can't get worried about.

 

@ above