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What types of things does an EMP fry -- only things that have computer parts, batteries, magnets ???
How do you know what will be fried and what won't be?
An EMP will fry solid state electronics - think computer chips and other similar devices. Batteries, magnets, and so forth are not as sensitive and are probably safe. The mechanism is that an EMP creates a strong electromagnetic field. Wires and and traces on circuit boards act as antennas and pick up that field which in turn creates large voltage swings at the input to those chips, which fries them. As others have mentioned the defense against this is electrical shielding around the electronics, aka a Faraday cage.
There are few consumer products that don't rely on solid state electronics to operate, and our electrical generation and distribution systems are also dependent on solid state electronics. That said, there isn't universal agreement on which types of devices will be affected and how many will actually be fried.
As far as how you will know, turn it on and nothing happens. Your car probably might not start because the engine control module will be fried. No electricity, which means no heat for most people, and also no water since our water system depends on pumps which run on electricity. It could be very ugly.
Someone posted their opinion that a natural event is more likely than one caused by a nuclear explosion. Hard to say, but I expect countries like North Korea and terrorists in the middle east will try for an EMP capable nuke first before one that targets physical destruction. Why? Because e a single nuke optimized around producing an EMP will devastate large areas, whereas physical destruction happens a city at a time. Potentially they could bring down the entire U.S. infrastructure with a small number of nukes. I think it's a real risk unless we take some action to manage it.
while frightening, I find it all very interesting....
Define solar activity, Please?
If you hear the term "Coronal Mass Ejection" that's a big one I suspect a big Solar flares could also do the job. Sometimes you get both together. They're both real high energy events and end up in a lot of nasty stuff headed our direction.
I expect countries like North Korea and terrorists in the middle east will try for an EMP capable nuke first before one that targets physical destruction.
Our military has already said that if we were targeted with nukes by countries like North Korea, they would opt for EMP strikes. Detonating nukes in our atmosphere to take out our grid would cause more damage to America in terms of paralyzing us and number of deaths than nuking cities.
China is even developing EMP weapons to be used carry groups.
In all seriousness it was the late 2000's reports about natural EMP from coronal mass ejections that caused me to start buying emergency food. Most threats are complete nonsense, or so unlikely....but this one? I think theres a 1 in 100 chance of me seeing one. Thats actually significant. And when you add in all the other possibilities, suddenly prepping a bit seems reasonable.
In all seriousness it was the late 2000's reports about natural EMP from coronal mass ejections that caused me to start buying emergency food. Most threats are complete nonsense, or so unlikely....but this one? I think theres a 1 in 100 chance of me seeing one. Thats actually significant. And when you add in all the other possibilities, suddenly prepping a bit seems reasonable.
I totally agree.
I actually did some food stockpiling as a result of Y2K. I wasn't worried at all about what would happen, but it was impossible to ignore that some people were panicking - I worked for a bank at the time, and we actually had some depositors who withdrew all their cash and cashed in their CDs, etc, and said they were also going to sell all kinds of stuff and turn it all into gold.
It made me think about disasters in general. When I was living in Salem, Oregon, the capital city, we had a serious ice storm. Electricity in my home was sporadic for 3 days, it was pretty cold, my furnace didn't work, and my range was electric - some of the expensive neighborhoods in the hills were without electricity for over a week.
You don't have to be a fanatic prepper to realize that you need to assess your particular living situation and ask what you'd need to survive if the grid goes down or an earthquake destroys the major highway bridges in your area.
Not a reason to have nightmares, but a reason to be prepared. Red Cross has some good advice. A lot of fire departments around the country are coordinating citizen's emergency response teams, in coordination with FEMA - Fire department preparedness and response to non-fire emergencies
This has been on the radar for quite some time. One huge solar flare and it could fry the electrical grid( although some of its safeguarded and the elite wouldn't worry). Imagine no cell phones, no internet, no gadgets and toys. People would go ape **** and lose it. I think it would do people a lot of good although dealing with a bunch of tech addicted mush brained crazies suddenly forced to go cold turkey would be scary.
You'd have the same thing if they ever used a killswitch on the internet in the case of national unrest or protests. That's why we have to keep saying " hands off the internet or we'll break them off" to our politicos.
In all seriousness it was the late 2000's reports about natural EMP from coronal mass ejections that caused me to start buying emergency food. Most threats are complete nonsense, or so unlikely....but this one? I think theres a 1 in 100 chance of me seeing one. Thats actually significant. And when you add in all the other possibilities, suddenly prepping a bit seems reasonable.
It is one of a few things that I prepare for, probably one of the worst scenarios, actually. The great thing is preparing for this also means I am prepared for an earthquake (more likely), civil unrest (less likely), etc. that is the thing, you need water for all of those events, same with food, tools, skills, etc.
Living in a major metropolitan area poses serval challenges, one of them being the danger of actually being around people that are scared and desperate.
During Y2K we had to run every generator the railroad had because they were determined to run trains regardless ...a EMP will definitely put them out of business.
I'm not sure what this is, can someone please explain what a natural EMP and man made EMP is...
I know it's electricity but do not understand the rest....
Thank you
It's fiction, and it could be slightly exaggerated, but this will give you a bit of an idea of what could happen. If nothing else, it will make you think of things you probably haven't....such as people who need medicine...like diabetics, and there's no refrigeration...as one example:
New diesel engines would not be operable, due to electronic management of the fuel injection.
Older diesel engines with purely mechanical fuel injection systems would run just fine. Of course, starting them could be problematic, unless they were equipped with air powered cranking motors.
Steam locomotives, tractors, and vehicles would work great (anybody know where there is a Stanley Steamer?)
Would an EMP destroy the coil in an old points/condenser/coil ignition system? If not, old cars (pre-1970?) might work OK.
The ignition system in reciprocating engine aircraft is completely shielded in metal. It might survive, even though the rest of the electrical system would be toast.
It would be interesting, seeing what survived and what didn't!
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