I Smell Sensationalism

[Sionyn]

Fox News Says 

Electromagnetic pulse is a burst of electromagnetic energy strong enough to disable, and even destroy, nearby electronic devices. In the first few minutes of an EMP, nearly half a million people would die.     

500,000 people would die  in the first half hour were did they get that number from.... thier arses ? 

We're not ready for a massive EMP or a 500 mile high Tsunami or Giant radioactive lizards that breath fire. In the first few minutes of an EMP, nearly half a million people would die." Well, if we're talking about an EMP that could take out the entire globe including airspace, that might be true of planes falling from the sky and trains running off the rails.

That scenario isn't even remotely plausible outside total nuclear annihilation. Further, Hurricane Katrina showed that even an EMP hitting a major city is really nothing more than a power outage. Flooding happens to be the most dangerous natural disaster in reach of major cities.

i real wish i could go hit these experts in mouth why blatantly lie and scare just for a news story. 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/04/21/experts-warn-civilian-world-not-ready-for-massive-emp-caused-blackout

[Excavatoree]

I saw a video in which a "prepper" covered his chain saw ignition module with aluminium foil, and placed it in a metal trash can so he can use his chainsaw after a large EMP event.

People buy vehicles with purely mechanical diesel engines (because even an ignition coil and mechanical points can be destroyed by the EMP) so they can get around after "the big one."

[sacherjj]

1,500 - 4,500 airliners in the sky over the US depending on time of day.  4,500 * 100 passengers (low estimate I'm sure) = 450,000 people.  I high altitude burst would take out many of these, due to EMP. 

I don't think the numbers are impossible.  Or a magnitude off of impossible.  Improbable?  Well, you did say Fox News, right?

EMP is a scary situation, especially with things like power lines channeling the energy into communication hubs.  The use of fiber optics is a good thing, if the communications locations are hardened.

[Richard Crowley]

Wow, you act as if the press (ANY press, left-leaning, right-leaning, or otherwise) actually has any credibility that anyone would believe what they say.

"In the first few minutes of an EMP, nearly half a million people would die. That's the worst-case scenario that author William R. Forstchen estimated in 2011 would be the result of an EMP on the electric grid..."  When you're done rolling your eyes, perhaps you might spend a serious couple of hours and study the situation.  I rather liked this other quote...

"If you do a smart plan - the Congressional EMP Commission estimated that you could protect the whole country for about $2 billion," Pry told Watchdog.org. "That's what we give away in foreign aid to Pakistan every year." It seems rather likely that the US will be attacked by people financed by our own "foreign aid".   

[kolonelkadat]

would an emp actually damage any electronics? I always thought it was just a hollywood device used to allow the plot to advance.

eta: I mean yeah, sure, some electronics, but all of them?

[sacherjj]

How do you protect the whole country?  I'm wondering how big the $2 billion Faraday cage is.   O0

[c4757p]

would an emp actually damage any electronics? I always thought it was just a hollywood device used to allow the plot to advance.

I'm highly skeptical. Yeah, if you stick a few megawatts of wideband energy, lightning-style, up your car's ass, it might not want to start. But at a distance? My gut feeling about this is that eddy currents in larger metal objects would absorb such a ridiculous amount of energy that you'd pretty much need an electrical nuclear bomb to pull it off over a distance. And in that case you're pretty much fucked anyway, magic smoke or not

eta: I mean yeah, sure, some electronics, but all of them?

Good catch, it probably wouldn't be hard to screw up a cell phone or two

[G7PSK]

would an emp actually damage any electronics? I always thought it was just a hollywood device used to allow the plot to advance.

The USSR actuals planed such attacks, When A Russian mig landed in Taiwan some years back the US was scoffing at them for having valves/tubes on the front end of the on-board electronics, that is until they realised the import of what they found, the Russians were prepared to be flying during an EMP attack which would be bringing the western planes down. There was the a rush to harden NATO's equipment against an EMP attack.

[SeanB]

Planes would survive as after all they are a giant flying Faraday cage, and this gets a very close approximation to EMP every time it flies into a storm and gets hit by lightning. Might have to land manually, as the ILS would not be working from EMP, though you would need a rather large pulse right over the field to kill it. You have EMP pulse that big I would be a lot more worried about the blast wave from the very large fission fusion fission device that you will need to make it, as you probably will have EMP in the blast wave area mostly.

BTW, you do know that the universe is out to kill us all, just statistically speaking, all planets meet up with a sodding great big rock every so often. 65 million years ago it made us possible.

[Legit-Design]

[c4757p]

Hmm, don't see that one all too often on YouTube (in the U.S. at least):

[mikeselectricstuff]

**Cough** inverse square law **Cough**

[houdini]

An EMP could be a nuclear bomb detonated at altitude which would mean we were in a nuclear war and then at least that many people would die in the first half hour.

[Rory]

Further, Hurricane Katrina showed that even an EMP hitting a major city is really nothing more than a power outage.

I don't recall hearing about EMP during Hurricane Katrina, and we went through it. 

[Phaedrus]

A 1960s 1.4 megaton high-altitude nuclear test in the Pacific generated an EMP which blew streetlights, damaged telecom equipment, and nuked transistor radios 1500km away in Hawaii:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime


I don't understand all of the physics, but the magnitude, radiation signature, and detonation altitude of a nuke all effect the range and severity of the EMP.

[Phaedrus]

Apparently the main threat from an EMP is not from the radiation from the actual detonation, but from electrons and positrons emitted by the explosion which then cause secondary wideband radiation. At low altitude the atmosphere will stop these particles within a few tens of miles, and therefore the effect is relatively short-ranged. However at stratospheric altitudes the combination of thinner air and the strength of the earth's magnetic field can carry the particles over an extremely wide area, allowing for heavy EMP over a wide geographical area. Bombs can also be optimized to output more beta/electron radiation to worsen the EMP effect.

The shape of the magnetic field over North America makes EMP especially threatening, in that a powerful EMP-optimized bomb detonated over the Dakotas could knock out the electrical grid and computing resources of almost the entire central US. The coasts would probably be mostly ok, however.

[T3sl4co1l]

Fox News?

[EEVblog]

Someone has to post it:
http://youtu.be/zl9_ylakzcI?t=46s

[facumedica]

So a EMP could burn a ignition coil! 
I'm wrapping my hammer with aluminium foil... just in case 

[echen1024]

Fox News?

Beaverton? Merely a coincidence on an EE forum?

[vk6zgo]

would an emp actually damage any electronics? I always thought it was just a hollywood device used to allow the plot to advance.

The USSR actuals planed such attacks, When A Russian mig landed in Taiwan some years back the US was scoffing at them for having valves/tubes on the front end of the on-board electronics, that is until they realised the import of what they found, the Russians were prepared to be flying during an EMP attack which would be bringing the western planes down. There was the a rush to harden NATO's equipment against an EMP attack.

I don't think the Russkis seriously planned an EMP attack.
They were probably more worried about incidental EMP following a normal Nuclear explosion,or even just the effects of direct radiation on solid state stuff.

[zapta]

Wow, you act as if the press (ANY press, left-leaning, right-leaning, or otherwise) actually has any credibility that anyone would believe what they say.

He cherry picked Fox News because this is what the left does. They try to discredit Fox News because it decent from their socialist narratives. Here is another example from the same poster:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/fox-news-us-solar-energy-investment-less-than-germany-because-us-has-less-sun/

The sensationalism in this case is with the OP.

[miguelvp]

That might be the case.

But hey, it's Fox News any article will fit the Bill.
O'Really?

[EEVblog]

The USSR actuals planed such attacks, When A Russian mig landed in Taiwan some years back the US was scoffing at them for having valves/tubes on the front end of the on-board electronics, that is until they realised the import of what they found, the Russians were prepared to be flying during an EMP attack which would be bringing the western planes down. There was the a rush to harden NATO's equipment against an EMP attack.

I don't think the Russkis seriously planned an EMP attack.
They were probably more worried about incidental EMP following a normal Nuclear explosion,or even just the effects of direct radiation on solid state stuff.

Standard first strike or retaliatory nuclear launch protocol on both sides is to air burst a few huge nukes first over the key areas to knock out everything with EMP and hopefully their defences, and then the real nuking begins.

[peter.mitchell]

Why are people surprised this stuff makes it on to news and gets sensationalized if things like this happen every day;