# EMP bomb **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2001, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emp-bomb/78279 "2001-08-27T03:51:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emp-bomb/78279/1 "2001-08-27T03:51:07Z")
The latest issue of _ **Popular Mechanics** _ has as its cover story an “E-Bomb” which the article claims could be built for roughly $400 and send us back to the horse and buggy era. The “E-Bomb” basically uses a bank of capacitors, some copper tubing, coils of wire, and explosives to create an EMP which would wipe out all integrated circuits and other such things. My questions have to deal with the accuracy of the claims in the article. Could one be built for $400? The article claims that only diesel engines would work after the blast. What about automobiles built back before the introduction of the integrated circuits? I thought those were supposed to be immune to such things. Finally, how big of one would it take to shut the US down? The article mentions that the military is thinking about using them to take out anti-ship missiles and similar things, so obviously these things have a “blast range” with a safe zone to them and not just any size bomb will knock out an entire nation. ---
**Author:** ![Never\_Say\_Dice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee59a6/32.png) [@Never\_Say\_Dice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Never_Say_Dice)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emp-bomb/78279/2 "2001-08-27T03:59:05Z")
They worried about this a lot during the cold war: How do you talk to your nuclear subs when bombs are corrupting the airwaves with static. But the problem goes away when the explosion ends and you reboot. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emp-bomb/78279/3 "2001-08-27T04:33:14Z")
Interesting links, and the answers to some of your questions can found in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=81808) in “great Debates”. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emp-bomb/78279/4 "2001-08-27T04:47:12Z")
The electro-magnetic pulse wouldn’t simply disrupt the flow of electricity in electronics and the wiring harness, the EMP would actually cause wires to melt. The microscopic circuits in a computer would be the first to go, as would the windings in an ignition’s coil. A strong EMP could also damage the windings in an alternator or a starter motor ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emp-bomb/78279/5 "2001-08-27T05:27:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \* > \*\*Finally, how big of one would it take to shut the US down? \*\* **Tuckerfan** , I give you this: It’s not how _big_ your weapon is, it’s how you use it. . . In college, I took Electrical Engineering, and by the same principle that fires your spark plugs in your car, any massive change in current or voltage will cause an EMP pulse in a radio. Next time you have a thunderstorm nearby, switch to AM radio, and you’ll hear the ‘snaps and pops’ on your station. . . In any case, my favorite example is Hurricane Floyd a couple of years back. Yeah it was a big storm, but it hit _one building in New Jersey_ that brought down the East Coast’s credit card system for two weeks, simply because of flooding. If you could do something like that, you could do extreme damage to, if not seriously delay, the intentions and economics of an entire nation. But keep in mind (all you damn Commie bastards!) that the military doesn’t work off of credit cards. . . Can I tell you how to do it? Easy. Will I? Hell no. . . Tripler I’ll thump you! ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emp-bomb/78279/6 "2001-08-27T13:26:29Z")
Here’s a [link](http://www.soci.niu.edu/~crypt/other/chupax.htm) for anyone who wants to know about EMP “guns” and EMP “Bombs”. The _ **Popular Mechanics** _ story is just one more example of credulous journalists repeating any interesting story without checking their facts. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/emp-bomb/78279/7 "2001-08-27T23:49:33Z")
**Trip** , yeah, I know with the right target selection (say NYC, and a few other places) you could basically make life difficult for people, but damn it, if _I_ were an international terrorist, I’d wanna build a big enough EMP bomb so that it shut down the entire country! None of this mamby pamby stuff about just taking out New York and Washington DC! I’d want to make _everything_ grind to a halt! Besides, I imagine that some of the places one would target probably have back up systems safely out of range of the initial attack, so while credit card companies might seize up (oh, happy day!), other things, like the military and such could keep going. Plus, getting life back to normal would be a lot easier if part of the country was left unscathed. (Psst, we don’t have to actually **use** the thing, we can build one or two and use 'em to blackmail the world! I’ve always wanted to be a Bond villian. Come on, it’ll be fun!;)) **Tranq** , read the link, but it didn’t say anything, really, about an EMP device being impossible, only that the claims made by “experts” that terrorists and the like are working at building one are bogus, which is no surprise to me (“Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.”).