Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot Com. Hello there, everybody,
Speaker 1: and welcome to tech stuff. My name is Chris Polette,
Speaker 1: and I'm an editor here at how stuff works dot Com,
Speaker 1: sitting across from me as usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: Hey there, all right, then, so what do you want
Speaker 1: to talk about today? Well? What I want to talk
Speaker 1: about comes to us courtesy of a little a listener mail.
Speaker 1: And this listener mail comes from Larry from State Center, Iowa,
Speaker 1: and Larry says, Hey, guys, huge fan of the show,
Speaker 1: and I pretty much listened to anything how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot Com has to offer anyway. I have recently read,
Speaker 1: actually downloaded it from audible dot com, a book called
Speaker 1: One Second After by William our Fortune. I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask how Stuff Works team about this book, but didn't
Speaker 1: know which group to send it to. After hearing your
Speaker 1: podcast are we at cyber War and thinking that this
Speaker 1: is definitely tech related, decided to send it to you.
Speaker 1: This book is about what happens to a small town
Speaker 1: in America after three nuclear bombs are detonated above the US,
Speaker 1: and the e m P knocks out all communications and electronics.
Speaker 1: As far as I can tell, this book was one
Speaker 1: of the most realistic and scariest books I have ever read.
Speaker 1: Slash listen to you a foreword by new Gingrich, which
Speaker 1: is scary enough, and then afterward by a member of
Speaker 1: the military talking about how easily this could be a reality.
Speaker 1: I should add that this is scary enough, was my
Speaker 1: compos on his Could you please let me know how
Speaker 1: likely this is to happen and if this book has
Speaker 1: been fairly accurate about what could happen if it did.
Speaker 1: Thanks Larry, Well, Larry, I have not read the book
Speaker 1: in question. However, we can talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: imps and what they do. Yes, actually, um, e MPs
Speaker 1: are a very real thing, um, and it happens on occasion,
Speaker 1: I mean, on on its own, but it could definitely
Speaker 1: be caused by a a nuclear detonation. Now that's uh so.
Speaker 1: An e MP stands for electro magnetic pulse and we
Speaker 1: can tell you a little bit about what it's. The
Speaker 1: theory behind the electro manet pulse. It actually comes back
Speaker 1: from something we call the Compton effect. Now, the Compton
Speaker 1: effect is not named after a particular neighborhood outside of
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. Now, it's named for Arthur Compton, who came
Speaker 1: up with this theory in which got applied to nuclear
Speaker 1: detonations much later in the fifties. Actually, right, so this
Speaker 1: is the theory. The theory is that if you take
Speaker 1: an atom with a low atomic number and you bombard
Speaker 1: it with high intensity lightwaves. We're talking like in the
Speaker 1: gamma radiation field, if you bombard it with with photons,
Speaker 1: these these highly energized photons, it will cause electrons to
Speaker 1: shoot off of those atoms. And so if you do
Speaker 1: this to enough atoms all at once, you create an
Speaker 1: electromagnetic pulse yep UM. Basically any radio signals, a MFM,
Speaker 1: even TV, cell phone signals, light X rays, microwaves that
Speaker 1: they're all forms of electromagnetic energy UM. And so basically
Speaker 1: what this does is that you know, it can actually
Speaker 1: transfer it becomes electrical energy. Right, Yes, magnet magnetic fields
Speaker 1: can induce an electric of electricity. Electricity, boy, I can't
Speaker 1: talk either today. See, I was hoping you'd fix that
Speaker 1: because here's the problem is that today we did our
Speaker 1: first episode of tech Stuff Live and we apparently left
Speaker 1: our tongues back in the other studio. So here's the deal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and a magnetic field can induce electricity and vice versa. So,
Speaker 1: for instance, I'm sure a lot of our listeners when
Speaker 1: they were in various physics classes, doesn't experiment where you
Speaker 1: take something like a nail and you wrap a copper
Speaker 1: wire around the nail and you run electric current through
Speaker 1: the copper wire, which creates a magnetic field. It's an electromagnet.
Speaker 1: Electromagnet thus very very weak because you know, you use
Speaker 1: like a six volt battery or right, I mean, unless
Speaker 1: you're at my school. We we hooked that sucker up
Speaker 1: to the backup generator, and uh why does that not
Speaker 1: surprise me? Yeah, so I'd like to take this opportunity
Speaker 1: to apologize to all the students that I injured in that. No, no,
Speaker 1: I'm kidding. We did not do any of that. We
Speaker 1: didn't do it. Westall High School is still very much
Speaker 1: alive and well, so, uh, yeah, that's an electromagnet. You're
Speaker 1: running current through a series of coils that creates a
Speaker 1: magnetic field. You know, you're using electricity, thus electromagnet, yes,
Speaker 1: but um, a nuclear explosion releases a little bit more
Speaker 1: energy than a six volt battery in a science classroom. Yes,
Speaker 1: a tad more a tad tad being a scientific term here. Um,
Speaker 1: So I mean it's it's gonna have a dramatically more
Speaker 1: serious effect in going to cause a lot more electromagnetic
Speaker 1: um energy to be released, which is going to induce
Speaker 1: a lot more electrical energy exactly. So here's where you
Speaker 1: get into the problem. Let's if you've if you've ever
Speaker 1: been in a like a lightning storm and had your
Speaker 1: electricity flicker as a result. It's from the surge of
Speaker 1: electricity where your your electrical system, your wiring system can't
Speaker 1: handle that sudden surge of energy. That's what we're talking about,
Speaker 1: but on a much grander scale. And uh and in
Speaker 1: a very short, powerful burst, you could suddenly have enough
Speaker 1: electricity that could fry circuits. I actually have a true
Speaker 1: story relating to that. Shoot. My father's VCR was plugged
Speaker 1: in during an electrical storm, uh and m a surge
Speaker 1: came through the wiring. Wasn't the first time we actually
Speaker 1: had something like this happened, but it's the first time
Speaker 1: that had happened on this scale. So he heard the
Speaker 1: pop on the VCR. When they took the cover off
Speaker 1: to a parent, the power supply inside was gone. It
Speaker 1: had been completely dis roid by the power surge. And
Speaker 1: strong enough e MP can do the exact same thing. Um,
Speaker 1: it can actually use the electrical impulses can actually travel
Speaker 1: on uh, wiring in your house or piping metal pipes,
Speaker 1: and basically anything that might be sensitive to that can
Speaker 1: be completely destroyed if if the pulse is strong enough,
Speaker 1: right right, anything that can conduct electricity is essentially uh,
Speaker 1: you know, that's what's gonna happen. It's gonna conduct the
Speaker 1: electricity from this pulse to whatever the terminus happens to be.
Speaker 1: And um, yeah, it's a it's a scary concept because
Speaker 1: it is true. If you have an electromagnetic pulse that
Speaker 1: is strong enough, it can cause all the electrical um appliances, vehicles,
Speaker 1: anything really that runs on electricity that happens to be
Speaker 1: turned on at least it can cause it to shut down,
Speaker 1: or if it's powerful enough, it can destroy those electronics
Speaker 1: will just fry the circuitry. Um. Now, if it's something
Speaker 1: that can be turned off, may survive the electromagnetic pulse
Speaker 1: without any problems. Not a guarantee, but it's possible. Now,
Speaker 1: if it's a nuclear bomb that's gone off, chances are
Speaker 1: the e m P is the least of your worries.
Speaker 1: But I mean, it's one of many things you'd have
Speaker 1: to worry about, depending on how big the bomb was.
Speaker 1: There was a study that I read where the the
Speaker 1: outcome of the study said predicted that a a nuclear
Speaker 1: bomb of sufficient power detonated two miles over Kansas would
Speaker 1: be enough to generate an electromatic pul magnetic pulse to
Speaker 1: wipe out electronics across the United States. So you think
Speaker 1: about that one bomb two miles over, so it's not
Speaker 1: even it's not even a detonating again near the earth,
Speaker 1: really it's but it's strong enough to wipe out all
Speaker 1: the electronics right there. And you know, think about all
Speaker 1: the things we depend upon that are electronic. It's pretty
Speaker 1: much everything. Yep. UM. We actually have an article on
Speaker 1: the website about it UM and it's uh it basically
Speaker 1: explains this in greater detail. But there are also other weaponry.
Speaker 1: It doesn't even require um a nuclear bomb to to
Speaker 1: set it off. The United States was actually working on
Speaker 1: this in the nineteen fifties. UH, something called a flux
Speaker 1: compression generator. Yeah. Yeah, UM. It's a much smaller scale
Speaker 1: though than than a nuclear weapon. Right, It's much more
Speaker 1: focused and direct. You could aim this at something as
Speaker 1: opposed to just having a wide area effect, right right. Um.
Speaker 1: And the thing is it's sort of a combination of
Speaker 1: a conventional weapon and uh sort of like an electromagnet.
Speaker 1: It's actually got the copper wiring around it, and when
Speaker 1: the explosion is set off, it creates, you know, the
Speaker 1: the uh science behind that, it creates an electromagnetic pulse
Speaker 1: that can do damage to a specific target. And they've
Speaker 1: also dabbled with the idea of UM using UM a
Speaker 1: missile that has a micro wave generator UM that could
Speaker 1: be more focused. But some people consider these uh safe weapons,
Speaker 1: if you will, because they could knock out electronics without
Speaker 1: killing people. Yeah, it's it's sort of like sort of
Speaker 1: a non lethal weapon. Really want to be under it
Speaker 1: when it It's a scary thing about the flux compression
Speaker 1: generator is that in theory, you could create one for
Speaker 1: around four bucks. And here's here's really what you're you're
Speaker 1: talking about. Not that I'm suggesting anyone go out and
Speaker 1: try and build one of these. It's a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: please don't, yeah, because we kind of like our electronics.
Speaker 1: Otherwise we have no jobs. So the first thing is
Speaker 1: that you've got tech stuff. We're not going to talk
Speaker 1: about anything today because it doesn't work anymore. Right now,
Speaker 1: we'll just it'll just be, you know, like any other
Speaker 1: normal day where Chris and I just sit around and
Speaker 1: chat at each other and no one else listens, start
Speaker 1: a starting a new podcast called paper stuff. Really, I
Speaker 1: don't know that people are listening right now. That's creepy. Alright,
Speaker 1: So moving on. You've got a tube. Imagine a tube
Speaker 1: that's filled with a chemic will explosive. Wrapped around this
Speaker 1: tube is the copper coil. And then you've got some
Speaker 1: capacitors attached to the copper coils. No, and then around
Speaker 1: the copper coil you have a metal sheath that is
Speaker 1: not in contact with the coil. Right, and then, um,
Speaker 1: so what happens is you've got first you you run
Speaker 1: a current through the coil, which creates a magnetic field.
Speaker 1: You detonate the chemical explosive that's inside the tube. Now,
Speaker 1: this makes the tube press outward, touching the coil. Now,
Speaker 1: the magnetic field has also created an electric field. Once
Speaker 1: the tube connects with the coil, that creates a short circuit.
Speaker 1: There's a wave of explosions that move from one into
Speaker 1: the tube to the other. It just expands. It's like
Speaker 1: you know, thinking think about the tube expands from one
Speaker 1: endo the to the other based upon where you ignite
Speaker 1: the explosion. So it's a moving short circuit. That's what
Speaker 1: generates the electromagnetic pulse. And then you just point the
Speaker 1: thing at wherever you're you know whatever, you no effect,
Speaker 1: and it's pretty much gonna wipe it out. Um. And
Speaker 1: it's said such a high concentration that that things like
Speaker 1: the shielding that you would put on cables and so
Speaker 1: to to prevent electromagnetic interference, it's really no match for
Speaker 1: the intensity of the pulse. So, you know, just the
Speaker 1: same stuff that's going to protect your your cables from
Speaker 1: creating uh interference with each other isn't going to be
Speaker 1: enough to to prevent an electromanic pulse. That I didn't
Speaker 1: read one person who suggested I think it was an
Speaker 1: Air Force individual who suggested Faraday cages as a as protection. Now,
Speaker 1: a Faraday cage what it does is it directs electric
Speaker 1: current into the ground. So the idea here is that
Speaker 1: any electromagnetic pulse would hit the cage, the cage would
Speaker 1: direct the pulse towards the ground, and everything would be
Speaker 1: hunky dory. But theoretically, but some people suggest that the
Speaker 1: electromanetic pulses of these weapons would be so powerful as
Speaker 1: to get through a Faraday cage and still affect the
Speaker 1: electronics inside. And worse yet, if they're powerful enough, they'll
Speaker 1: generate magnetic fields in the electronics themselves because of all
Speaker 1: the different cables and wires and things like that, which
Speaker 1: will set off another series of electromagnetic pulses much lower
Speaker 1: in power, but it will still be there, so it'll
Speaker 1: fry anything or at least malfunction anything that was still
Speaker 1: working after the initial blast. So it's kind of like
Speaker 1: electromagnetic aftershocks. Yeah, yeah, that's you're you're making me feel
Speaker 1: better and better about this. Well, you know, he asked
Speaker 1: if it was realistic and possible, and we're here to
Speaker 1: tell him the truth, and the truth is it's it's possible.
Speaker 1: No one's really done it yet, I mean not, as
Speaker 1: far as we know, no one has successfully used an
Speaker 1: e MP for that purpose, although it is has been
Speaker 1: a side effect of nuclear detonations in the past, which
Speaker 1: is how they sort of figured out that it was
Speaker 1: going to happen. Oh yeah, yeah, that was that was
Speaker 1: the whole I mean, it wasn't until the forties that
Speaker 1: anyone actually observed an electro magnetic pulse. And that was
Speaker 1: in some tests over some over the air tests where
Speaker 1: they were detonating bombs in the air day being the
Speaker 1: United States military. And as a result, uh, an e
Speaker 1: MP wave pretty much wiped out the lighting system of
Speaker 1: of a large part of Hawaii, and I hear that,
Speaker 1: um some electronics as far as way as Australia were
Speaker 1: affected by the e MP And that was the point
Speaker 1: where the United States and Russia agreed that maybe it's
Speaker 1: a good idea to not do any more of these
Speaker 1: tests up in the atmosphere. Okay, so that's fair enough. Um, well, um,
Speaker 1: you know they've they've actually stirred the imagination of several people.
Speaker 1: I mean, I should think of a couple of instances
Speaker 1: where it's made it into a films and TV. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was the documentary Oceans eleven. Uh. And now in
Speaker 1: this documentary Danny Danny Ocean, Yes, Danny Ocean and his
Speaker 1: ten compatriots are trying to Yes, no, no, no no, I'm
Speaker 1: talking about the remake, the remake of the documentary. So
Speaker 1: Danny Ocean and his ten companions are attempting to UH
Speaker 1: to steal money from Las Vegas Casino, and they determine
Speaker 1: that one of the elements they need in order to
Speaker 1: successfully pull off this caper is UH to to short
Speaker 1: circuit the electrical electrical system of the casino, and they
Speaker 1: do this by borrowing a generator from a local technology school,
Speaker 1: borrowing by stealing it and setting it off right next
Speaker 1: to the casino, which of course makes the whole power
Speaker 1: grids shut down in that general area. Now, in that case,
Speaker 1: the e MP that they generate is just powerful enough
Speaker 1: to overload the system for just a few minutes, which
Speaker 1: is very convenient for the plot. Right, didn't affect anything,
Speaker 1: It just knocked out the mean, Right, it just short
Speaker 1: circuited for him. It was like, you know, a lightning
Speaker 1: strike knocking out your power for a moment, and then
Speaker 1: the circuit breaker clicks on and everything's okay again. It
Speaker 1: was sort of like that, yeah, yeah. And then there
Speaker 1: was the matrix, in which case the ship was armed
Speaker 1: with an e MP generator said that when the giant
Speaker 1: mechanical squid thing that I can't remember the name of
Speaker 1: right at the moment, someone right in and tell me,
Speaker 1: um that, uh, you know, once it attacked the ship,
Speaker 1: they could zap it with the e m P. Of course,
Speaker 1: the ship itself wasn't damaged or anything. And then uh
Speaker 1: and uh Dark Angel. You know, Seattle was basically out
Speaker 1: of power because they didn't have they had had an
Speaker 1: e MP burst over the city and you know, there
Speaker 1: were no electronics anymore. So, you know, the Matrix was
Speaker 1: a great film. I really wish they had made some
Speaker 1: sequels to that, shut up, just like I really wish
Speaker 1: they had made some great prequels to that Star Wars trilogy.
Speaker 1: Shut up. So yeah, e m p s are definitely
Speaker 1: in fiction. Uh, it's probably they They're more than theoretically
Speaker 1: they are possible. Okay, sorry, I'm let me restate that
Speaker 1: they are possible, but no one's actually weaponized them in
Speaker 1: the that we know of, in the open where they've
Speaker 1: actually been utilized against someone. Yeah, as far as we know,
Speaker 1: can I qualify that a little more. I'm just saying
Speaker 1: like someone may have used one and they kept it
Speaker 1: all hush hush. I mean, you know, I'm not a
Speaker 1: conspiracy theorist by any means, but if you have this
Speaker 1: kind of weapon technology, you may not necessarily want people
Speaker 1: to know about it, because it's a much more effective
Speaker 1: weapon if they don't. But then again, you know, what
Speaker 1: are you gonna do to protect yourself against one. It's
Speaker 1: really hard to prevent an e MP from damaging your system.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's only so much shielding you can do,
Speaker 1: and if a Faraday cage, as some people suggest, is
Speaker 1: not enough to protect your electronics, really the only answer
Speaker 1: to making sure an e MP does not complete caused
Speaker 1: the collapse of your civilization is to reduce your dependency
Speaker 1: upon electronics. But how realistic is that? I mean, we're
Speaker 1: getting more and more dependent on electronics every single day. Yes,
Speaker 1: so please download and listen to our podcast as we're
Speaker 1: very dependent on those electronics. Yes, uh, yeah, you know
Speaker 1: it's not really it's not really all that safe a
Speaker 1: weapon if they use it to knock out your electronics
Speaker 1: and then come in with the infantry, right, So it's uh.
Speaker 1: And we should also point out there are some things
Speaker 1: that maybe would not be affected by an e m P,
Speaker 1: so it's not like everything would would be destroyed, but
Speaker 1: even things that you might imagine would be all right, like,
Speaker 1: for instance, your car. You would think, okay, well the
Speaker 1: radio is gone, the you know, the if you have
Speaker 1: one of those really cool dashboards that have all the
Speaker 1: different indicators that are all electronic, that would be gone.
Speaker 1: But the car itself be fine, right, Not if you
Speaker 1: have an electrical system in your car, that's right. If
Speaker 1: you have, like us, yeah, an electrical starter, then you're
Speaker 1: pretty much stuck. Um, some older diesel vehicles would be
Speaker 1: all right, I suppose, And if you had anything to
Speaker 1: start with a hand crank, yeah that those have their
Speaker 1: own problems. I read about those on stuff Block. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I heard about them on the High Speed Stuff podcast
Speaker 1: plug So uh yeah, that's a great podcast by the way.
Speaker 1: And I should also point out they did a companion
Speaker 1: piece to our three D printing They did a piece about, yeah,
Speaker 1: about about how the fabricating, yeah, fabricating your own car parts.
Speaker 1: It's a great podcast. Guys. If you enjoyed our three
Speaker 1: D printing podcast, I highly recommend you check that one out.
Speaker 1: It was really really good. Scott and Ben know their stuff,
Speaker 1: and Ben was really you know, I mean Ben, Ben
Speaker 1: usually plays the part of asking questions on that, but
Speaker 1: he was. He was definitely a full time participant in
Speaker 1: that one. So excellent work. Guys. Um, I'm pretty much
Speaker 1: complete with my EMP knowledge. Jump, I'm done. I'm tapped out.
Speaker 1: There's probably tons more that I'm I'm skipping over. But well,
Speaker 1: I mean there's always tons more we could talk about,
Speaker 1: but I'm personally I'm knocked out. Yeah, we're both were
Speaker 1: both then hit by a w A a text stuff
Speaker 1: e MP sort of. Uh So, guys, if you're interested
Speaker 1: in this, we do have a great article called how
Speaker 1: was it e bombs? Right? Yes, how bombs work? Scary
Speaker 1: stuff and so yeah, it's it's definitely one of those
Speaker 1: technologies people are still pursuing. Yeah, I mean around for
Speaker 1: a long time, but you know, don't count it out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's as we get more and more dependent. I think
Speaker 1: it's definitely gonna be one of those things that that's
Speaker 1: going to be part of modern warfare. Now, before we go,
Speaker 1: I do have one more a listener man. This listener
Speaker 1: mail comes from Katie, and Katie has this to say, Hello,
Speaker 1: Chris and Jonathan, I just listen to your latest podcast stuff.
Speaker 1: You can hook up to your TV. And while it
Speaker 1: was really interesting, what caught my ear the most was
Speaker 1: the mention of Pie. I just wanted to let you
Speaker 1: know that I really enjoy your podcasts and I really
Speaker 1: really enjoy Pie Katie. Thanks Katie. I really really enjoy
Speaker 1: Pie too. And I wrote to Katie and I told
Speaker 1: her I was really trying to get a Pie centric
Speaker 1: tech stuff podcast was shot down because I was told
Speaker 1: it wasn't tech oriented. So then I tried to do
Speaker 1: a totally new podcast called Pie Stuff, but they won't
Speaker 1: let me do that either. Yeah, some of us think
Speaker 1: that Jonathan is a little crusty um, but you know,
Speaker 1: I personally find his uh discursions into these things uh feeling.
Speaker 1: I'm just staring him down right now, Folks, just channel
Speaker 1: your hate through me and I will I will gaze
Speaker 1: at him. We we pious the official desert of tech stuff,
Speaker 1: all right, tech Stuff Live, and so any discussions of
Speaker 1: Pie are certainly welcome. Even the number the number is
Speaker 1: also welcome, Yes, the number two. We are happy to
Speaker 1: have Pie in our studio at any time, and we
Speaker 1: are also thankful to have you in our studio. Virtually speaking,
Speaker 1: I hope that you've enjoyed this episode. Remember you can
Speaker 1: check out our blogs, you can read our articles. You
Speaker 1: can find all that at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Crispy and I will talk to you again about E
Speaker 1: M P s and pie maybe really soon for moralns
Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. And be sure to check out the new
Speaker 1: tech stuff blog now on the house stuff Works homepage,
Speaker 1: brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready, are you