Re: Works of Fiction and Electomagnetic Pulses



On Wed, 12 Dec 2007, God Rudy wrote:

On Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:06:25 -0600, One_Pierced_One wrote:

There use to be a time when I would post here--years ago--and back
then some of the smartest people in the world hung out here.

And recently, when I found myself facing a question that only smart
people could help me answer I came here.

It looks from the recent "Lurker Roll Call" that there are still quite
a few geniuses here? So would you like to help me out as I do research
for a work of fiction? If I sell it and become a multi-bijillionaire
becase of your assitance I will mention RHOD in the dedication. Deal?

OK

I love it when you're easy.



What I need to know about is electro-magnetic pulses and the likely
effect on electronics. I've seen demostrations where an
electro-magnetic pulse is shot through a vehicle and the vehicle dies,
its circuit boards fried out.

As Kegs said, older vehicles (without any electronics) will be fine.


I've also heard that such a pulse could be produced from some possible
sources, like high energy burst of gamma radiation in space, or a
large nuclear device being detonated in the upper atmosphere, or even
in theory, the Large Hadron Collider. Let's assume for now that the
source of the pulse is as important as the effects on earth.

You are forgeting a important source: Lightning!

I was sort of trying to figure out how it would play out if the destruction was simultaneous (or over the course of a day or two) and worldwide. And if such a large EMP is even possible without being powerful enough to boil away the atmosphere.

But it doesn't really matter too much, its only a setting for a whorehouse in an western town, I was hoping to have people worried that the streets would again turn to dust and we'd be living in ramshackled wooden houses as horse drawn wagons rumble by in the dust (the wagons made out of old, otherwise unusable automobile shells). And of course the Madam of the whorehouse is a bawdy old women...with a heart of gold...and she gathers her moxie and makes a stand for women's rights in a world gone mad.



If such a pulse did happen, would the damage to electronics be
permanent? If not how long would they be disabled?

We had a lightning strike VERY close to the house (10-20 feet). This
strike did some major damage. As in:
- two CCTV cameras went "dead"
- the attached "video multiplexer" (4 pictures in one) got slightly
damaged, even when the video cables went through a lightning arrestor!
- we have some network cables between three houses, those cables acted as
antennas and put that EMP to many computers.
- I had about 8 fried network cards and 3 fried switches
- some of the network cards had no direct connection to the long runs, but
had some cables running paralell ...
- alltogether about US$800 damage.


If it was permenant, what would it take to repair the devices?

Depends on the device.
- A old transistor radio with discrete trasistors: replace one or two.
- Same as above with some early integrated circuits: replace the chip.
- iPod, PDA, Cell Phone ... --> Most probably dead from a nuclear EMP.
- same with 99% of all computers and networking equipment.

Would transistors that are sitting on a shelf in warehouses be damaged?



How extensive would the damage be, I mean would it be anything with a
transisitor? Would devices that ran on vacuum tubes be immune? What
about cars with mechanical points and old fashion ignition coils, would
they be spared?

All you would get on a vacuum tube radio are a few crackels ... An old car
might missfire once or twice (if that much) ...
The only "guaranteed" protection: have the equipment in a tight faraday
cage with no connection to the outside.

Which would be great if you know the surge was coming!



I have more questions, but depending on the answers to these they may be
moot.

I might have more detailed answers ...


I realize traffic here is low, and the servers are obscure any more.
Isn't it odd that the end of Usenet shares many parallels with its
beginning?

And before anyone asks, yes I asked the Oracle already.


By the way he gave me a helpful, practical answer, and was overly polite about that. Is something wrong with the system?





.

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