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Comment by mm321 | Hacker News Reader

I don't know why this was down voted; while in an elevator one is not supposed to use a cell phone, because of this effect. At least in the elevator at work there is a sign that says so.

http://microwavenews.com/news-center/using-cell-phone-elevat...

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I thought one is not supposed to use a cell phone in the elevator because it doesn't work because elevators are made out of ferrous metals and hence are effectively Faraday cages.

I can make and receive phone calls in lifts. It was weird the first few times. I'm in the UK if that makes any difference.

Could you make and receive phone calls in every lift you were in?

I'm no Gluse but I've never had problems with lists, even those clad in steel in the middle of dense buildings with lots of steel bars in.

That "in the elevator at work there is a sign that says so" is hardly evidence for anything.

People use cellphones in elevators ALL the time, ALL around the world. Especially when continuing a conversation they had as they walked in the building, and for as long as the signal stays.

The evidence was in the link of my post: because of the Faraday cage/screening, part of the radio waves that the cellphone is emitting are reflected back into the elevator; the resulting strength of this fields exceeds the norms by an order of magnitude. this is considered to be within harmful range.

The parent poster mentions the same effect in the context of aeroplanes.

The elevator/order-of-magnitude thing is an urban legend.

You'll only find it mentioned in fringe non-scientific sites.

Case in point, your source, microwavenews. This is for the kind of people who believe in chemtrails and such.

I mean, even if you don't know about the site, isn't it obvious from the BS way of writing that you're reading something designed to sell stuff to kooks? "According to some new calculations", "if you believe the research by", obscure "EMF" conferences in China (with dead webpages) and what have you.

It was down-voted because it's nonsensical. Nobody is making cell-phone calls on an airplane.

Well, some airlines [1] already offering such services...

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phones_on_aircraft#Statu...

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