Doctor Who: 15 Science Lessons To Build Your Own Sonic Screwdriver

6. Hack Computer

4 Hack Computer 2 The War Games In many situations it's of the utmost importance to able to obtain information from a computer. You have to get around passwords and firewalls setup by the owner, and that can be a difficult task. The sonic screwdriver is well-known for hacking into computers, and all the modern Doctors are doing it. But the sonic has been hacking computer far longer than most people suspect. Fact is, the first Doctor to use the sonic screwdriver to hack a computer was the Second Doctor in The War Games when the Second Doctor needed to access information of the War Chief's plans from General Symthe's computer. This one is a bit more difficult to explain and is supposition rather than outright scientific proof. But the base science is there. Sound waves can be used to alter particle fields and control the magnetism of objects amongst other properties. Altering magnetic fields can then alter the electron flow of the electricity. The magnetism is also a factor in storage capabilities. Altogether this would give a person the ability to control all facets of a computer. If you knew where to point the device you could control the fields that carry the energy and make the computer do whatever you like. The Doctor usually points the screwdriver at the monitor, not the computer but I put that down to visual staging. Many people consider what they see on the screen as the computer. Science is a very long way from this so this is conjecture on my part on how this would work.
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Contributor

An artist and a computer geek before the two became synonymous. Combined them into data visualization which just seemed natural. But my real passion is Doctor Who. I write for the magazine Whotopia with my colleague Jürgen. Presented on my blog, The Doctor and Me, are essays and data analysis of Doctor Who. Working to amass large Doctor Who datasets allows for the analysis of the show unlike anything else. The most recent dataset is every use of the sonic screwdriver which is currently approaching 900. And every time an old episode comes on, there is a chance of spotting yet one more use that was tucked away.