Whyfi: A science question about the unibody MBPs

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First of all, how's the wifi reception on the aluminum-body MBPs?

Secondly, how are you able to get any reception at all?

I'm no physicist, but it seems to me that a solid aluminum case would act as a Faraday cage, thereby blocking out all electromagnetic radiation; wifi is radio frequency, and RF is EMR, so it should be impossible for the wifi signal to reach the internal wireless card on the MBP.

How is the wifi cutting through the case?
 
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First of all, how's the wifi reception on the aluminum-body MBPs?

Secondly, how are you able to get any reception at all?

I'm no physicist, but it seems to me that a solid aluminum case would act as a Faraday cage, thereby blocking out all electromagnetic radiation; wifi is radio frequency, and RF is EMR, so it should be impossible for the wifi signal to reach the internal wireless card on the MBP.

How is the wifi cutting through the case?

You could ask the same WIFI question about the Mac Pro towers...since they are enclosed in an all aluminum case as well.

I can't explain how it works...but it certainly is not impossible...because it works!:)

- Nick

p.s. I'm sure that it took some fine tuning to get it to work as well as it does today...because the WIFI reception with the initial Powermac G5's did have WIFI reception problems...because they solved it with this external antenna (photo below). Apple must have "tweaked" the design when they released the first Mac Pro towers.

9226043.jpg
 

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You could ask the same WIFI question about the Mac Pro towers...since they are enclosed in an all aluminum case as well.
...]

As are a great many high end PC cases from Antec, Lian Li and others.

I believe the proper question here is not how does it work, but how does a Faraday cage prevent it from working. A Faraday cage is a little more than just a thin aluminum sheet surrounding an object.
 
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A Faraday cage is a little more than just a thin aluminium sheet surrounding an object.

Exactly!

This is not intended as a personal attack of any sort, but perhaps read the link that you provided in your OP, and you will see comparing the MBP to a Faraday cage is a little far fetched, even if you are not a physicist!
 
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As I understand it, EMI creates a weak electric field when it strikes a conductor; a solid sheet of a conductive material would have its atoms spaced closely enough together for the electric fields to overlap. But yeah, not a physicist. Not even close.
 

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