On 30/01/2008, Daniel A. Ramaley <daniel.ramaley@drake.edu> wrote:
quoted text
> On Wednesday 30 January 2008 12:35, Douglas A. Tutty wrote:
> >My wife is sensitive to what she describes as electromagnetic fields.
> >She gets headaches and other pains when exposed to equipment: the
> > higher the frequency, the worse her symptoms.
>
> Rather than trying to find obsolete equipment that runs at a low
> frequency, would it be possible to build a Faraday cage around your
> computer?
>
> Has your wife had her sensitivity examined by medical professionals? Is
> it a physical problem or a psychosomatic condition? How does she react
> to fluorescent lights? Incandescents? How about driving near a radio
> transmission tower? Or for that matter, even being in a modern car? If
> there is an electronic device turned on in the next room but she is not
> aware of it, does she still experience pain? I don't need answers to
> these questions, but if there is a medical solution to your wife's
> sensitivity that might be easier than trying to banish all electronics.

Without trying to be disrespectful to your wife's suffering, upon
reading your email I immediately thought of a double blind trial (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_blind#Double-blind_trials ) I
would run if it were me:

- Take your palm pilot and weigh it.
- Find some small object(s) of equal weight.
- Get two identical shoe boxes, some cushioning material, and wrapping paper.
- With your wife in another room, turn on the palm pilot and put it in
one box (and cushion it) and seal the box. Put the other object(s) in
the other box (with cushioning) and seal it.
- To make sure you too can't tell the boxes apart, leave the room and
have your wife enter it after you have left. Have your wife wrap the
sealed boxes in wrapping paper. Now neither she nor you know where
that Palm pilot is.
- Your wife should then pick one of the boxes and put in on her
bedside table or similar.
- After at most 24hrs (if she lasts that long) she should try the
other box. She should then tell you which she thinks has the Palm
Pilot in it.

Since there's a 50/50 chance, you could either repeat the experiment a
bunch of times and/or use a whole bunch of boxes.

Okay, totally off-topic (sorry), but that's what popped into my head.

--ropers