Magnetic Metro Tickets

I boarded a metro bus yesterday and headed towards my home. If the busy day in the Uni wasnt enough the tickets wouldnt work yesterday. The Validating Machine in the bus did not accept the ticket. I then showed it to the driver and he wrote me a slip with which I can claim the a new Ticket from any metro ticket office.

I had nothing to do last night so decided to do a little research on what might have caused my tickets failure. Well I did find it out. For those who dont know the ticket that I am talking about get detailed information here.

The tickets have a magnetic strip in which the ticket information is stored on. The validater in the buses/trains and trams reads this info and validates the ticket. As per simple magnetism(thanks to my 8th standard physics teacher - I am not able to remember a thing about the magnetic physics) the magnets could be demagnetised in a number of ways. I spend most of my time near the computer and my wallet next to it. From this information given in the Adelaide Metro website, I learnt the many ways in which the magnetised tickets could go demagnetised (See pic below). Images courtesy : Adelaide Metro .