Is the US Prepared for an EMP Attack?

  • Thread starter Thread starter yoyopizza
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
A recent discussion centered on the potential impact of an EMP attack on electronics and military equipment in the U.S. Participants questioned whether government precautions like Faraday cages could mitigate damage. The conversation explored the effectiveness of metal enclosures, such as desktop computers, in providing protection. Concerns were raised about the risks posed by power cords and transformers that could transmit damaging voltages during an EMP event. Ultimately, the forum moderator closed the thread, indicating that discussions about EMPs are not permitted.
yoyopizza
Messages
39
Reaction score
1
So I watched a video recently on YouTube about how one well placed EMP above the United States would wipe out all electronics and military equipment, but doesn't the government have precautions against this such as the Fariday Cage? Also, since the desktop computer is incased in metal, wouldn't it act as a Fariday Cage by itself and protect the computer from the emp?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Well, if you have everything enclosed in a Faraday cage and run on batteries inside the cage, you are OK.

But now let's look at the real world. What do you reckon will happen when a power cord going from the local step-down transformer sends not the standard 120 volts into the equipment inside the cage but rather sends a couple of thousand volts?

How about when that step-down transformer that normally has a few thousand volts as input is subjected to a few tens of thousands of volts?
 
yoyopizza said:
So I watched a video recently on YouTube about how one well placed EMP above the United States would wipe out all electronics and military equipment, but doesn't the government have precautions against this such as the Fariday Cage? Also, since the desktop computer is incased in metal, wouldn't it act as a Fariday Cage by itself and protect the computer from the emp?

Welcome to the PF.

We do not normally allow discussions about EMP here at the PF. Sorry, but this thread is closed.
 
Consider an extremely long and perfectly calibrated scale. A car with a mass of 1000 kg is placed on it, and the scale registers this weight accurately. Now, suppose the car begins to move, reaching very high speeds. Neglecting air resistance and rolling friction, if the car attains, for example, a velocity of 500 km/h, will the scale still indicate a weight corresponding to 1000 kg, or will the measured value decrease as a result of the motion? In a second scenario, imagine a person with a...
Thread 'Gauss' law seems to imply instantaneous electric field propagation'
Imagine a charged sphere at the origin connected through an open switch to a vertical grounded wire. We wish to find an expression for the horizontal component of the electric field at a distance ##\mathbf{r}## from the sphere as it discharges. By using the Lorenz gauge condition: $$\nabla \cdot \mathbf{A} + \frac{1}{c^2}\frac{\partial \phi}{\partial t}=0\tag{1}$$ we find the following retarded solutions to the Maxwell equations If we assume that...
Dear all, in an encounter of an infamous claim by Gerlich and Tscheuschner that the Greenhouse effect is inconsistent with the 2nd law of thermodynamics I came to a simple thought experiment which I wanted to share with you to check my understanding and brush up my knowledge. The thought experiment I tried to calculate through is as follows. I have a sphere (1) with radius ##r##, acting like a black body at a temperature of exactly ##T_1 = 500 K##. With Stefan-Boltzmann you can calculate...
Back
Top