# EMP and the human body

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emp-and-the-human-body/171220>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 26, 2003, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emp-and-the-human-body/171220 "2003-04-26T00:32:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![xvxdarkknightxvx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/34f0e0/32.png) [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emp-and-the-human-body/171220/1 "2003-04-26T00:32:42Z")

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What would an EMP do to the human body? Doesn’t the human body function using electrical impulses? How would the EMP affect those pulses? Thanks for any info.

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**Author:** ![bbeaty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c0e974/32.png) [@bbeaty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbeaty)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emp-and-the-human-body/171220/2 "2003-04-26T03:36:20Z")

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EMP is nothing when compared to electric shocks.

Living things probably evolved to withstand the electric currents under water during lightning striking the surface. Touching a 9-volt battery to your tongue is far stronger than EMP.

Really huge EM pulses might make you see flashes of light (called Magnetophosphenes.)

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**Author:** ![Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@Dreaming\_of\_Maria\_Callas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dreaming_of_Maria_Callas)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emp-and-the-human-body/171220/3 "2003-04-26T09:37:09Z")

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In a related question, Larry Niven’s science fiction short stories of the 1960’s talked about how human beings could not travel by bussard ramjet because the necessary magnetic field would kill you. Is this true?

UnuMondo

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**Author:** ![cainxinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@cainxinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cainxinth)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2003, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emp-and-the-human-body/171220/4 "2003-04-26T12:49:53Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by UnuMondo \*  
> \*\*In a related question, Larry Niven’s science fiction short stories of the 1960’s talked about how human beings could not travel by bussard ramjet because the necessary magnetic field would kill you. Is this true?
> 
> UnuMondo \*\*

Three things off the top of my head…

1. Bussard ramjet’s usually talks about the size of the field required, which is massive, not its magnitude.

2. People get put into MRI’s daily, which create fields up to 4.0 tesla, which is a heluvalot (its a technical term). For comparison the earth’s magnetic field is about 0.0001 tesla, or 1 gauss.

3. If we do ever travel through the solar system or the galaxy, I’d like to think it wouldn’t be in a space shipped cooked up while hippies were trying on their first pair of bellbottoms.