EMP?

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Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
There was a question recently about an EMP, or Electro-Magnetic Pulse device. Now I'm pretty sure the question did not refer to the actual device for creating one, which is a nuclear weapon. Given the other topics which are forbidden, I'm going to go out on a limb and posit that nuclear weapons of the fission variety are off the table -- almost surely. Such devices are not harmless curiosities which is why those threads will get closed.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,179
There are devices that can produce EMP but they are many oders of magnitude smaller and less powerful. The system used to magnetize magnets is a good example. It uses a large bank of capacitors charged to a moderately high voltage to produce a pulse in the hudreds of amps. The associated fixture is designed to route the resulting flux into the part being magnetized. It is an interesting machine indeed. That is probably the most common sort of EMP device around. Not nuclear at all, and fairly safe when used correctly.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,179
The far more serious potential for a magnetic disaster is a solar "coronal Mass ejection", where a large blob of plasma squirts out of the sun towards the earth. Because plasma is a very good conductor and moving fast, the mass will generate huge voltage pulses along the power transmission lines, and, according to the theory, cause transformer failures by means of massive arc-overs. The same pulse is anticipated to cause over voltage destruction of most electronic devices. All of the damage being done in less than a minute, if the theory is correct.
If it does happen the aftermath will be very interesting, with most of the whole world's electronic stuff suddenly inoperative, and no power grid available. The magnitude of the pulse is guessed to be the equal of a few hundred nuclear blasts all at thesame time, really quite difficult to imagine.
 

OBW0549

Joined Mar 2, 2015
3,566
The TS did not clear state its need to magnetize some tweezers.
I suspect his interest in an EMP device had something to do with his previous thread seeking information on how to "neutralize" an imagined "implant" hidden somewhere in his body, presumably installed during sleep by some nefarious agency such as the CIA, the KGB, the Coca Cola Company or whatever. He may have got the EMP idea from this post.

I could be mistaken, but I think that's the connection.
 

jpanhalt

Joined Jan 18, 2008
11,087
I saw that post. I considered it one to two things:
1) A troll; or
2) Someone who needed real help that is not available here.

In either case, I saw no conceivable benefit to the TS by continuing it here. A few comments to get help may have been warranted. Of course, they would be ignored, but not the 50+ comments that I saw on last checking it. At best, it brought out the worst of people who made fun of it.
 

Thread Starter

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
I suspect his interest in an EMP device had something to do with his previous thread seeking information on how to "neutralize" an imagined "implant" hidden somewhere in his body, presumably installed during sleep by some nefarious agency such as the CIA, the KGB, the Coca Cola Company or whatever. He may have got the EMP idea from this post.

I could be mistaken, but I think that's the connection.
Frying something inside your body could be fatal all by itself.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,179
I think the post in question was locked for this reason:

View attachment 210385
The TS did not clear state its need to magnetize some tweezers.
AN RMP device is not a jammer, and it is unlikely that any participant has plans for an atomic bomb made from available parts. And at a 2 1/2 inch distance it is not likely to bother too many folks. BUT it might magnetize watches.
 

MrSoftware

Joined Oct 29, 2013
2,188
I would think talk of a fissile bomb would be fine, as it's unlikely anyone here could actually make one even with the knowledge (do we have any state sponsored posters here?).

That said; and EMP device would be very useful for helping ensure your design is EMP resistant, if that's something you're worried about. Actually I would be very curious to pulse a handful of designs just to see what happens, and see if it's possible to harden them.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,179
I would think talk of a fissile bomb would be fine, as it's unlikely anyone here could actually make one even with the knowledge (do we have any state sponsored posters here?).

That said; and EMP device would be very useful for helping ensure your design is EMP resistant, if that's something you're worried about. Actually I would be very curious to pulse a handful of designs just to see what happens, and see if it's possible to harden them.
For testing to verify immunity is certainly a valid use. The power required to produce a big enough EMP to do damage at more than a few feet is incredible. I investigated what it would take to erase hard drives at 100 feet a while back because I had an idea on how to make LOTS of money. It is not do-able with anything that you could carry on a street-legal truck, or group of trucks. Possibly the army could arrange it, maybe.
 

MrSoftware

Joined Oct 29, 2013
2,188
There's a youtube video from a TV show, I forgot the name of the show but one of those everything military type of shows, and they drive a car under an EMP device. The device is a handful of wires in an arc like a rainbow over a driveway. They're very skinny on details but mention they use over 1M volts. Anyway they drive the car under, hit the button and presto the car stalls. The comment section has comments from a handful of people who were driving onto a military base, legitimately, and the guy in the guard shack neglected to turn off whatever EMP device they have in the road just past the guard shack and it killed the cars they were in. Anyway, it show that these things are in use militarily, but they don't give enough details to indicate whether it's something joe average could build in the garage.
 

AnalogKid

Joined Aug 1, 2013
10,987
Back when, Time mag had an exploded (!) graphic of the US military's EMP "bomb" used (or thought to be used) in the first Iraq war. I think it charged up a coil, then collapsed the coil mechanically for an insane flux vector. Wiki says Boeing demonstrated this in 2012, so the Time article might have been more DARPA than deployed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosively_pumped_flux_compression_generator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-electronics_High_Power_Microwave_Advanced_Missile_Project

ak
 

AnalogKid

Joined Aug 1, 2013
10,987
Just consider the magnitude of the voltages involved in the operation of the processor and that is your answer,
No, it's not.

The magnitudes of the voltages involved are irrelevant. More important are the impedances of the circuits, the wavelengths of the wires and pc board traces, the circuit inputs transient protections, etc. Also, the engine compartment of a car is more like a leaky Faraday cage than any other "normal" consumer electronics environment, and does such a good job of preventing the passage of radiation that the car's radio and GPS need external antennae.

"Hardening" consumer electronics to either survive (hard) or operate through (harder) an EMP event is neither impossible nor magic. Like so many things, there's a MIL Spec for that. All it takes is physics and money.

ak
 
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MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,179
AK, for a given amount of energy input, the circuit impedences determine the voltage and the current. And in logic it is crossing threshold levels that changes the state of the logic.
 

MisterBill2

Joined Jan 23, 2018
18,179
FIRST, it is not reasonable to consider the application of high energy pulses to living beings as safe. There are obvious mechanisms of causing damage, and probably also some less obvious mechanisms that I do not see.
 
FIRST, it is not reasonable to consider the application of high energy pulses to living beings as safe. There are obvious mechanisms of causing damage, and probably also some less obvious mechanisms that I do not see.
I've been researching on this topic on Quora, etc and some users have said, even an EMP of high voltage will not cause damage unless it is from a nuclear or atomic blast. Another user said, if the implant is in brain it might cause damage and that is why bullet fragments and shrapnel in brain is left there instead of removing, or if it is pace maker or defibrillator, it might cause damage.

Mod: Deleted link to a prohibited device.

The EMP gun only seemed to disable things, I'm hoping the implant I have might be disabled and not cause any shock or other damage with such an EMP gun.
 
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