To actually answer your question instead of piling on, it’s a hospital, not a prison. In case of emergencies, the door absolutely cannot ever be potentially locked, even while the machine is on.
With how easily something can go wrong in an MRI, they need quick access without the addition of special keya/badges to get inside or relying on people inside to hit some lock release.
In cases like this it makes perfect sense to have a lock because an idiot was outside and ignored all the warnings. A lock would have prevented everything that followed him entering.
Buuuuuuut unfortunately we can’t cater the entire world to the biggest idiots, if only for the safety of the less idiotic who might have a heart attack in the MRI and need to be quickly pulled out, or a piece of metal that snuck into their food and is now ripping out their insides.
In most situations where an emergency happens inside, quick reactions save lives, and locks slow reactions down to the slowest mechanism, which might be “I don’t have the right RFID badge, go find another person who has one or the guy inside dies”
Its an electromagnet that they have cooled down to 4 Kelvin with liquid helium. They take time to ‘wind up’ aka ‘ramping up to the desired/max field strength capable of the magnet’. They do this slowly because the magnet itself can crack if done too quickly, and many components are still affected by the strong magnetic field due to Lorentz forces. Also many components may be classified as ‘non-magnetic’ but still have some small amount of magnetism and can move when subjected to the extremely high magnetic fields. So, if the magnet is ‘quenched’ (all the helium shot out through a tube in the roof) then that process occurs in reverse, VERY quickly, potentially destroying many things. So its not like ‘cutting the power’ because the power is stored around the magnet itself by supercooled components creating a superconducting situation. Nonetheless, in case of harm coming to a person, techs should absolutely hit the quench switch. Not sure what happened to allow this guy in that room though
It would probably be quicker for you to look it up yourself because the answer is complicated to explain. But it’s an electromagnet made from superconducting materials, and that is why it seems to violate your common sense.
Why wasn’t the door to the room locked while the machine was running?
Tldr for safety
To actually answer your question instead of piling on, it’s a hospital, not a prison. In case of emergencies, the door absolutely cannot ever be potentially locked, even while the machine is on.
With how easily something can go wrong in an MRI, they need quick access without the addition of special keya/badges to get inside or relying on people inside to hit some lock release.
In cases like this it makes perfect sense to have a lock because an idiot was outside and ignored all the warnings. A lock would have prevented everything that followed him entering.
Buuuuuuut unfortunately we can’t cater the entire world to the biggest idiots, if only for the safety of the less idiotic who might have a heart attack in the MRI and need to be quickly pulled out, or a piece of metal that snuck into their food and is now ripping out their insides.
In most situations where an emergency happens inside, quick reactions save lives, and locks slow reactions down to the slowest mechanism, which might be “I don’t have the right RFID badge, go find another person who has one or the guy inside dies”
In an MRI, the magnet is always on, even when the machine isn’t running. You can’t ever go near it with metal on.
I keep seeing that in the comments but isn’t it actually an electromagnet?
Don’t those need electricity to operate?
I get it takes time to wind it up, been inside a few myself, but surely there’s a kill switch?
Its an electromagnet that they have cooled down to 4 Kelvin with liquid helium. They take time to ‘wind up’ aka ‘ramping up to the desired/max field strength capable of the magnet’. They do this slowly because the magnet itself can crack if done too quickly, and many components are still affected by the strong magnetic field due to Lorentz forces. Also many components may be classified as ‘non-magnetic’ but still have some small amount of magnetism and can move when subjected to the extremely high magnetic fields. So, if the magnet is ‘quenched’ (all the helium shot out through a tube in the roof) then that process occurs in reverse, VERY quickly, potentially destroying many things. So its not like ‘cutting the power’ because the power is stored around the magnet itself by supercooled components creating a superconducting situation. Nonetheless, in case of harm coming to a person, techs should absolutely hit the quench switch. Not sure what happened to allow this guy in that room though
So not just an electromagnet. Thanks, TIL.
It would probably be quicker for you to look it up yourself because the answer is complicated to explain. But it’s an electromagnet made from superconducting materials, and that is why it seems to violate your common sense.
Others explained it fairily ELI5 in this thread, thanks.
It’s not just an electromagnet is the TL;DR.
Maybe they should also baby proof all the electrical outlets so fools like this don’t stick forks in them?
How else is he supposed to get the premonitions?