Zinc has a characteristic light bluish tint and oxidizes to white, not yellow or brown. Some of them appear slightly dull and oxidised with a grey or white layer.
I soon expect to have screws implanted in my spine. I also have other infirmities. I hope like hell to never have screws ripped through my vertebrae by an MRI.
I think, as someone else said, things installed into the body are usually titanium and thus non ferrous. Fortunately they don't generally cause issues with MRIs as a result.
(I only know this because when I broke my ankle, during the pre-surgery interview, I asked the surgeon about going through metal scanners at an airport.)
Usually titanium, but yeah sometimes medical stainless steel. Both are non-ferromagnetic, especially titanium. These balls look like they could well be normal steel or any other metal. Also, implants - unlike these metal balls - are usually screwed firmly into your bones. So yeah, implants should be mostly fine on MRI. Loose balls of dubious metal? Wouldn't advise it. Keep in mind MRIs are literally powerful enough that metals in tattoo ink can even be an issue - which the article you linked mentions itself.
But that's zinc shot... It doesn't even look like steel. It shouldn't be attracted to a magnet. Perhaps they're steel inside, but the outside is clearly zinc.
I think its not about the property of beeing a metall ist a bout beeing ferromagnetic (In that case probably not an issue because these bearing balls are usually out of some kind stainless steel. )
I was told that because I have stents (plastic coated with platinum) I can never get an MRI again by my cardiologist.
A friend who makes knives felt the little bits of metal that he’s picked up in his skin over years of grinding blades getting pulled out of him during an MRI.
Maybe aluminum foil in your pocket would only “interfere with the scan,” but those magnets are powerful enough to make any metal in your body come out, violently.
I know someone with metal pins in their leg and they have had a MRI. It depends on the metal. Since I didn't specify what kind of metal everyone rushes forward to speculate on how wrong I am.
MRIs work because strong enough magnetic fields will interact with any material, not just ferrous metals. This can be impacted by the structure said materials form (stents are a weave like a finger trap and therefore more prone to interaction with magnetic fields than say a solid cylinder) but I’d be inclined to say your friend was lucky. Ball bearings like in the OP are nearly always steel outside of specific high end applications and therefore would behave like they were coming out of a shotgun shell.
Nothing you are going to type here is going to change the comments made by the tech operating the imaging system while I'm testing network connections right next to him around fifteen years ago.
Omg… except I call bullshit on the “speed of sound” claim. That would have been the equivalent of being hit by a 30mm round at 700 mph. That person would have been killed immediately.
57 Comments
betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world · 119 pts · 182d
Patient's name: Clay Moore.
MatSeFi@lemmy.liebeleu.de · 75 pts · 182d
Wow: Balls of Steel AND Darwin Award at the same time...
MehBlah@lemmy.world · -16 pts · 182d
A little metal wont kill you. It will ruin the image.
thethrilloftime69@feddit.online · 61 pts · 182d
Metal will ruin a CT scan. Metal will kill you in an MRI machine.
MehBlah@lemmy.world · -6 pts · 182d
https://www.ausrad.com/exams-services/magnetic-resonance-imaging/can-i-have-an-mri-if-i-have-metal-in-my-body/
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca · 34 pts · 182d
Isn't that just because they use non-magnetic metals for implants?
gens@programming.dev · 18 pts · 182d
Titanium, afaik
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works · -4 pts · 182d
And that's zinc shot. Perhaps they're steel inside, but the outside is clearly zinc.
FishFace@piefed.social · 4 pts · 181d
How on earth can you tell the difference between steel and zinc at a glance?
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 181d
Zinc has a characteristic light bluish tint and oxidizes to white, not yellow or brown. Some of them appear slightly dull and oxidised with a grey or white layer.
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 181d
I know it's my name, but I have to congratulate you on the excellent pedantry!
ilikecoffee@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 182d
This isn't an implant though. Massive difference.
toynbee@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 182d
I soon expect to have screws implanted in my spine. I also have other infirmities. I hope like hell to never have screws ripped through my vertebrae by an MRI.
HurricaneLiz@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 181d
Ugh, yeah, how do they even do MRIs for people with metal parts?
toynbee@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 181d
I think, as someone else said, things installed into the body are usually titanium and thus non ferrous. Fortunately they don't generally cause issues with MRIs as a result.
(I only know this because when I broke my ankle, during the pre-surgery interview, I asked the surgeon about going through metal scanners at an airport.)
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 181d
Non ferrous metal.
Kornblumenratte@feddit.org · 1 pts · 181d
Implants are non-magnetic. Wrecks the image, though.
toynbee@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 181d
Hopefully they don't need to do an MRI of my spine after they operate on it - apparently for their sake, not mine.
MehBlah@lemmy.world · -6 pts · 182d
What are implants made of? Stainless for the most part.
ilikecoffee@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 181d
Usually titanium, but yeah sometimes medical stainless steel. Both are non-ferromagnetic, especially titanium. These balls look like they could well be normal steel or any other metal. Also, implants - unlike these metal balls - are usually screwed firmly into your bones. So yeah, implants should be mostly fine on MRI. Loose balls of dubious metal? Wouldn't advise it. Keep in mind MRIs are literally powerful enough that metals in tattoo ink can even be an issue - which the article you linked mentions itself.
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works · -7 pts · 182d
But that's zinc shot... It doesn't even look like steel. It shouldn't be attracted to a magnet. Perhaps they're steel inside, but the outside is clearly zinc.
MatSeFi@lemmy.liebeleu.de · 14 pts · 182d
I think its not about the property of beeing a metall ist a bout beeing ferromagnetic (In that case probably not an issue because these bearing balls are usually out of some kind stainless steel. )
Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 182d
Neodymium magnets?
MehBlah@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 182d
I was told metal interferes with the scan. By a guy doing the scan.
dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net · 14 pts · 182d
I was told that because I have stents (plastic coated with platinum) I can never get an MRI again by my cardiologist.
A friend who makes knives felt the little bits of metal that he’s picked up in his skin over years of grinding blades getting pulled out of him during an MRI.
Maybe aluminum foil in your pocket would only “interfere with the scan,” but those magnets are powerful enough to make any metal in your body come out, violently.
MehBlah@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 182d
I know someone with metal pins in their leg and they have had a MRI. It depends on the metal. Since I didn't specify what kind of metal everyone rushes forward to speculate on how wrong I am.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 182d
The post is obviously insinuating that these are iron balls, so in this context you are wrong.
MehBlah@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 181d
Its important to you I be wrong. How powerless you must be in your day to day life.
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works · -5 pts · 182d
Except that they're clearly zinc shot. I think the poster made a funny without realising that they aren't steel, unless it's zinc-coated
dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 182d
MRIs work because strong enough magnetic fields will interact with any material, not just ferrous metals. This can be impacted by the structure said materials form (stents are a weave like a finger trap and therefore more prone to interaction with magnetic fields than say a solid cylinder) but I’d be inclined to say your friend was lucky. Ball bearings like in the OP are nearly always steel outside of specific high end applications and therefore would behave like they were coming out of a shotgun shell.
MehBlah@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 181d
Nothing you are going to type here is going to change the comments made by the tech operating the imaging system while I'm testing network connections right next to him around fifteen years ago.
slaacaa@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 181d
https://lemmy.world/comment/22259258
MatSeFi@lemmy.liebeleu.de · 1 pts · 182d
Yes Metals in general shild RF-Waves used to sample the image (and could get hot by that process)
wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works · -6 pts · 182d
These aren't bearing balls. They're zinc shot. Perhaps they're steel inside, but the outside is clearly zinc.
TimeNaan@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 181d
We get it, zinc shot man.
FishFace@piefed.social · 1 pts · 181d
False.
kersploosh@sh.itjust.works · 10 pts · 182d
Metal in a CT machine = bad image
Metal (particularly ferromagnetic metal) in an MRI machine = injured patient
Check out the stapler bouncing around near the beginning of this video: https://youtu.be/6BBx8BwLhqg
MeatPilot@sh.itjust.works · 35 pts · 182d
Front Toward Enemy
0ops@piefed.zip · 32 pts · 182d
Without any milk? Hardcore
BlackLodgeCooper@lemmy.ml · 15 pts · 182d
You add your milk before the ball bearings? Wtf is wrong with you?
Bazell@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 182d
Not everyone likes industrial grease for breakfast, I guess.
autriyo@feddit.org · 28 pts · 182d
Finally:
Reverse shotgun
cley_faye@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 181d
Doctors HATE this funny prank
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 182d
I wonder if that would actually do damage. I think it would be painful at least.
salvaria@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 11 pts · 182d
https://nypost.com/2025/01/14/health/woman-has-sex-toy-dragged-through-body-during-mri-scan/
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 182d
Omg… except I call bullshit on the “speed of sound” claim. That would have been the equivalent of being hit by a 30mm round at 700 mph. That person would have been killed immediately.
mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca · 6 pts · 182d
hopefully the company that advertised it as 100% silicone is sued into oblivion and folds and the people responsible suffer real consequences
I fucking hate false advertising.
kate@lemmy.uhhoh.com · 1 pts · 181d
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 182d
to you? yes.
to the MRI? probably not.
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 182d
Oh fuck
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 181d
The MRI tech is gonna crack up!
PacMan@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 182d
Best part of waking up is Shot Peening in your cup
stiffyGlitch@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 179d
am I dumb
oh no wait i understand now
I need more cake