What is an EMP?

to talk about today? Well? What I want to talk about comes to us courtesy of a little a listener mail. And this listener mail comes from Larry from State Center, Iowa, and Larry says, Hey, guys, huge fan of the show, and I pretty much listened to anything how stuff works dot Com has to offer anyway. I have recently read, actually downloaded it from audible dot com, a book called One Second After by William our Fortune. I wanted to ask how Stuff Works team about this book, but didn't

know which group to send it to. After hearing your podcast are we at cyber War and thinking that this is definitely tech related, decided to send it to you. This book is about what happens to a small town in America after three nuclear bombs are detonated above the US, and the e m P knocks out all communications and electronics. As far as I can tell, this book was one of the most realistic and scariest books I have ever read.

Slash listen to you a foreword by new Gingrich, which is scary enough, and then afterward by a member of the military talking about how easily this could be a reality. I should add that this is scary enough, was my compos on his Could you please let me know how likely this is to happen and if this book has been fairly accurate about what could happen if it did. Thanks Larry, Well, Larry, I have not read the book in question. However, we can talk a little bit about

imps and what they do. Yes, actually, um, e MPs are a very real thing, um, and it happens on occasion, I mean, on on its own, but it could definitely be caused by a a nuclear detonation. Now that's uh so. An e MP stands for electro magnetic pulse and we can tell you a little bit about what it's. The theory behind the electro manet pulse. It actually comes back from something we call the Compton effect. Now, the Compton effect is not named after a particular neighborhood outside of

Los Angeles. Now, it's named for Arthur Compton, who came up with this theory in which got applied to nuclear detonations much later in the fifties. Actually, right, so this is the theory. The theory is that if you take an atom with a low atomic number and you bombard it with high intensity lightwaves. We're talking like in the gamma radiation field, if you bombard it with with photons, these these highly energized photons, it will cause electrons to

shoot off of those atoms. And so if you do this to enough atoms all at once, you create an electromagnetic pulse yep UM. Basically any radio signals, a MFM, even TV, cell phone signals, light X rays, microwaves that they're all forms of electromagnetic energy UM. And so basically what this does is that you know, it can actually transfer it becomes electrical energy. Right, Yes, magnet magnetic fields can induce an electric of electricity. Electricity, boy, I can't

talk either today. See, I was hoping you'd fix that because here's the problem is that today we did our first episode of tech Stuff Live and we apparently left our tongues back in the other studio. So here's the deal. Yeah,

and a magnetic field can induce electricity and vice versa. So, for instance, I'm sure a lot of our listeners when they were in various physics classes, doesn't experiment where you take something like a nail and you wrap a copper wire around the nail and you run electric current through the copper wire, which creates a magnetic field. It's an electromagnet. Electromagnet thus very very weak because you know, you use like a six volt battery or right, I mean, unless

you're at my school. We we hooked that sucker up to the backup generator, and uh why does that not surprise me? Yeah, so I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to all the students that I injured in that. No, no, I'm kidding. We did not do any of that. We didn't do it. Westall High School is still very much alive and well, so, uh, yeah, that's an electromagnet. You're running current through a series of coils that creates a

magnetic field. You know, you're using electricity, thus electromagnet, yes, but um, a nuclear explosion releases a little bit more energy than a six volt battery in a science classroom. Yes, a tad more a tad tad being a scientific term here. Um, So I mean it's it's gonna have a dramatically more serious effect in going to cause a lot more electromagnetic um energy to be released, which is going to induce a lot more electrical energy exactly. So here's where you

get into the problem. Let's if you've if you've ever been in a like a lightning storm and had your electricity flicker as a result. It's from the surge of electricity where your your electrical system, your wiring system can't handle that sudden surge of energy. That's what we're talking about, but on a much grander scale. And uh and in a very short, powerful burst, you could suddenly have enough electricity that could fry circuits. I actually have a true

story relating to that. Shoot. My father's VCR was plugged in during an electrical storm, uh and m a surge came through the wiring. Wasn't the first time we actually had something like this happened, but it's the first time that had happened on this scale. So he heard the pop on the VCR. When they took the cover off to a parent, the power supply inside was gone. It had been completely dis roid by the power surge. And

strong enough e MP can do the exact same thing. Um, it can actually use the electrical impulses can actually travel on uh, wiring in your house or piping metal pipes, and basically anything that might be sensitive to that can be completely destroyed if if the pulse is strong enough, right right, anything that can conduct electricity is essentially uh, you know, that's what's gonna happen. It's gonna conduct the electricity from this pulse to whatever the terminus happens to be.

And um, yeah, it's a it's a scary concept because it is true. If you have an electromagnetic pulse that is strong enough, it can cause all the electrical um appliances, vehicles, anything really that runs on electricity that happens to be turned on at least it can cause it to shut down, or if it's powerful enough, it can destroy those electronics will just fry the circuitry. Um. Now, if it's something that can be turned off, may survive the electromagnetic pulse

without any problems. Not a guarantee, but it's possible. Now, if it's a nuclear bomb that's gone off, chances are the e m P is the least of your worries. But I mean, it's one of many things you'd have to worry about, depending on how big the bomb was. There was a study that I read where the the outcome of the study said predicted that a a nuclear bomb of sufficient power detonated two miles over Kansas would be enough to generate an electromatic pul magnetic pulse to

wipe out electronics across the United States. So you think about that one bomb two miles over, so it's not even it's not even a detonating again near the earth, really it's but it's strong enough to wipe out all the electronics right there. And you know, think about all the things we depend upon that are electronic. It's pretty much everything. Yep. UM. We actually have an article on the website about it UM and it's uh it basically

explains this in greater detail. But there are also other weaponry. It doesn't even require um a nuclear bomb to to set it off. The United States was actually working on this in the nineteen fifties. UH, something called a flux compression generator. Yeah. Yeah, UM. It's a much smaller scale though than than a nuclear weapon. Right, It's much more focused and direct. You could aim this at something as

opposed to just having a wide area effect, right right. Um. And the thing is it's sort of a combination of a conventional weapon and uh sort of like an electromagnet. It's actually got the copper wiring around it, and when the explosion is set off, it creates, you know, the the uh science behind that, it creates an electromagnetic pulse that can do damage to a specific target. And they've also dabbled with the idea of UM using UM a missile that has a micro wave generator UM that could

be more focused. But some people consider these uh safe weapons, if you will, because they could knock out electronics without killing people. Yeah, it's it's sort of like sort of a non lethal weapon. Really want to be under it when it It's a scary thing about the flux compression generator is that in theory, you could create one for around four bucks. And here's here's really what you're you're talking about. Not that I'm suggesting anyone go out and

try and build one of these. It's a matter of fact, please don't, yeah, because we kind of like our electronics. Otherwise we have no jobs. So the first thing is that you've got tech stuff. We're not going to talk about anything today because it doesn't work anymore. Right now, we'll just it'll just be, you know, like any other normal day where Chris and I just sit around and chat at each other and no one else listens, start a starting a new podcast called paper stuff. Really, I

don't know that people are listening right now. That's creepy. Alright, So moving on. You've got a tube. Imagine a tube that's filled with a chemic will explosive. Wrapped around this tube is the copper coil. And then you've got some capacitors attached to the copper coils. No, and then around the copper coil you have a metal sheath that is

not in contact with the coil. Right, and then, um, so what happens is you've got first you you run a current through the coil, which creates a magnetic field. You detonate the chemical explosive that's inside the tube. Now, this makes the tube press outward, touching the coil. Now, the magnetic field has also created an electric field. Once the tube connects with the coil, that creates a short circuit. There's a wave of explosions that move from one into

the tube to the other. It just expands. It's like you know, thinking think about the tube expands from one endo the to the other based upon where you ignite the explosion. So it's a moving short circuit. That's what generates the electromagnetic pulse. And then you just point the thing at wherever you're you know whatever, you no effect,

and it's pretty much gonna wipe it out. Um. And it's said such a high concentration that that things like the shielding that you would put on cables and so to to prevent electromagnetic interference, it's really no match for the intensity of the pulse. So, you know, just the same stuff that's going to protect your your cables from creating uh interference with each other isn't going to be enough to to prevent an electromanic pulse. That I didn't read one person who suggested I think it was an

Air Force individual who suggested Faraday cages as a as protection. Now, a Faraday cage what it does is it directs electric current into the ground. So the idea here is that any electromagnetic pulse would hit the cage, the cage would direct the pulse towards the ground, and everything would be hunky dory. But theoretically, but some people suggest that the electromanetic pulses of these weapons would be so powerful as to get through a Faraday cage and still affect the

electronics inside. And worse yet, if they're powerful enough, they'll generate magnetic fields in the electronics themselves because of all the different cables and wires and things like that, which will set off another series of electromagnetic pulses much lower in power, but it will still be there, so it'll fry anything or at least malfunction anything that was still working after the initial blast. So it's kind of like

electromagnetic aftershocks. Yeah, yeah, that's you're you're making me feel better and better about this. Well, you know, he asked if it was realistic and possible, and we're here to tell him the truth, and the truth is it's it's possible. No one's really done it yet, I mean not, as far as we know, no one has successfully used an e MP for that purpose, although it is has been a side effect of nuclear detonations in the past, which is how they sort of figured out that it was

going to happen. Oh yeah, yeah, that was that was the whole I mean, it wasn't until the forties that anyone actually observed an electro magnetic pulse. And that was in some tests over some over the air tests where they were detonating bombs in the air day being the

United States military. And as a result, uh, an e MP wave pretty much wiped out the lighting system of of a large part of Hawaii, and I hear that, um some electronics as far as way as Australia were affected by the e MP And that was the point where the United States and Russia agreed that maybe it's a good idea to not do any more of these tests up in the atmosphere. Okay, so that's fair enough. Um, well, um, you know they've they've actually stirred the imagination of several people.

I mean, I should think of a couple of instances where it's made it into a films and TV. Yeah, there was the documentary Oceans eleven. Uh. And now in this documentary Danny Danny Ocean, Yes, Danny Ocean and his ten compatriots are trying to Yes, no, no, no no, I'm

talking about the remake, the remake of the documentary. So Danny Ocean and his ten companions are attempting to UH to steal money from Las Vegas Casino, and they determine that one of the elements they need in order to successfully pull off this caper is UH to to short circuit the electrical electrical system of the casino, and they do this by borrowing a generator from a local technology school, borrowing by stealing it and setting it off right next

to the casino, which of course makes the whole power grids shut down in that general area. Now, in that case, the e MP that they generate is just powerful enough to overload the system for just a few minutes, which is very convenient for the plot. Right, didn't affect anything, It just knocked out the mean, Right, it just short circuited for him. It was like, you know, a lightning strike knocking out your power for a moment, and then the circuit breaker clicks on and everything's okay again. It

was sort of like that, yeah, yeah. And then there was the matrix, in which case the ship was armed with an e MP generator said that when the giant mechanical squid thing that I can't remember the name of right at the moment, someone right in and tell me, um that, uh, you know, once it attacked the ship, they could zap it with the e m P. Of course, the ship itself wasn't damaged or anything. And then uh

and uh Dark Angel. You know, Seattle was basically out of power because they didn't have they had had an e MP burst over the city and you know, there were no electronics anymore. So, you know, the Matrix was a great film. I really wish they had made some sequels to that, shut up, just like I really wish they had made some great prequels to that Star Wars trilogy. Shut up. So yeah, e m p s are definitely in fiction. Uh, it's probably they They're more than theoretically

they are possible. Okay, sorry, I'm let me restate that they are possible, but no one's actually weaponized them in the that we know of, in the open where they've actually been utilized against someone. Yeah, as far as we know, can I qualify that a little more. I'm just saying like someone may have used one and they kept it

all hush hush. I mean, you know, I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any means, but if you have this kind of weapon technology, you may not necessarily want people to know about it, because it's a much more effective weapon if they don't. But then again, you know, what are you gonna do to protect yourself against one. It's really hard to prevent an e MP from damaging your system.

I mean, there's only so much shielding you can do, and if a Faraday cage, as some people suggest, is not enough to protect your electronics, really the only answer to making sure an e MP does not complete caused the collapse of your civilization is to reduce your dependency upon electronics. But how realistic is that? I mean, we're getting more and more dependent on electronics every single day. Yes, so please download and listen to our podcast as we're

very dependent on those electronics. Yes, uh, yeah, you know it's not really it's not really all that safe a weapon if they use it to knock out your electronics and then come in with the infantry, right, So it's uh. And we should also point out there are some things that maybe would not be affected by an e m P, so it's not like everything would would be destroyed, but even things that you might imagine would be all right, like,

for instance, your car. You would think, okay, well the radio is gone, the you know, the if you have one of those really cool dashboards that have all the different indicators that are all electronic, that would be gone. But the car itself be fine, right, Not if you have an electrical system in your car, that's right. If you have, like us, yeah, an electrical starter, then you're

pretty much stuck. Um, some older diesel vehicles would be all right, I suppose, And if you had anything to start with a hand crank, yeah that those have their own problems. I read about those on stuff Block. Yeah, I heard about them on the High Speed Stuff podcast plug So uh yeah, that's a great podcast by the way. And I should also point out they did a companion piece to our three D printing They did a piece about, yeah, about about how the fabricating, yeah, fabricating your own car parts.

It's a great podcast. Guys. If you enjoyed our three D printing podcast, I highly recommend you check that one out. It was really really good. Scott and Ben know their stuff, and Ben was really you know, I mean Ben, Ben usually plays the part of asking questions on that, but he was. He was definitely a full time participant in that one. So excellent work. Guys. Um, I'm pretty much complete with my EMP knowledge. Jump, I'm done. I'm tapped out.

There's probably tons more that I'm I'm skipping over. But well, I mean there's always tons more we could talk about, but I'm personally I'm knocked out. Yeah, we're both were both then hit by a w A a text stuff e MP sort of. Uh So, guys, if you're interested in this, we do have a great article called how was it e bombs? Right? Yes, how bombs work? Scary stuff and so yeah, it's it's definitely one of those technologies people are still pursuing. Yeah, I mean around for

a long time, but you know, don't count it out. Yeah, that's as we get more and more dependent. I think it's definitely gonna be one of those things that that's going to be part of modern warfare. Now, before we go, I do have one more a listener man. This listener mail comes from Katie, and Katie has this to say, Hello, Chris and Jonathan, I just listen to your latest podcast stuff. You can hook up to your TV. And while it was really interesting, what caught my ear the most was

the mention of Pie. I just wanted to let you know that I really enjoy your podcasts and I really really enjoy Pie Katie. Thanks Katie. I really really enjoy Pie too. And I wrote to Katie and I told her I was really trying to get a Pie centric tech stuff podcast was shot down because I was told it wasn't tech oriented. So then I tried to do a totally new podcast called Pie Stuff, but they won't

let me do that either. Yeah, some of us think that Jonathan is a little crusty um, but you know, I personally find his uh discursions into these things uh feeling. I'm just staring him down right now, Folks, just channel your hate through me and I will I will gaze at him. We we pious the official desert of tech stuff, all right, tech Stuff Live, and so any discussions of Pie are certainly welcome. Even the number the number is

also welcome, Yes, the number two. We are happy to have Pie in our studio at any time, and we are also thankful to have you in our studio. Virtually speaking, I hope that you've enjoyed this episode. Remember you can check out our blogs, you can read our articles. You can find all that at how stuff works dot com. Crispy and I will talk to you again about E M P s and pie maybe really soon for moralns and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works

dot com. And be sure to check out the new tech stuff blog now on the house stuff Works homepage, brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you