Would electronic equipment that is turned off be fried by an EMP pulse?

Question

After watching Jerico program on the television, a question came to mind. If electronic devices were turned off and no electricity was flowing through them, would an EMP pulse from a nuclear weapon fry them? It seems in the tv program, they can't decide on their answer as some objects are said fried, while others like the bar's television set, are still functional.

So, a board is "fried" because its capacitors are fried? What about its chips? Are they fried in the same process? ... where the electrical pulse, or radio wave, flowing along the solder lines creating over-voltage?

Thanks. Any examples of electronics that would be fried versus not. Would a newer car that is turned off work? I take it that TVs would work. Newer washer and dryers?

Answer 1

EMP can also travel along anything that conducts electricity, not just through the air. Examples of this include phone lines, power lines and network lines . With that being said, any electrical device that is turned off but plugged in, can be "fried".

Even devices not plugged in can also be fried, depending on the intensity of the EMP pulse.

Since there are also wires and many electrical and computerized components in modern cars, the same can also be said for modern cars that are turned off. The same can not be said for older, carborated cars with fewer electrical and little to no computerized components.

Ultimately, it really depends on how powerful the EMP pulse is.

I also watch Jericho and had the same questions you did, so I looked up the answers on the internet and posted my source with my answer.

Answer 2

an EMP is an extremely strong radio wave. This wave passes by conductive material and causes current to flow in the nearby conductor. Given a computer as an example, the pulse like planar wave, think of it as a moving wall, passes through the circuit board causing instantaneous currents to flow along the conductors, or wires and buss cables in the computer. These currents cause voltages which may be much larger then the circuitry was designed for resulting in some of the circuit components, mostly ICs, to "fry". So it is likely the Jerico TV show has people asking engineers whats going to work and whats not, but you can't depend too much on that. But it is realistic to say that some device might survive, and it also depends on the distance from the center of the EMP source.

Also just more FIY all radio waves are absorbed by conductors, and given the right metal enclosure, the radio wave will pass safely along the outside of the coductor ( it is against physics for a radio wave to exist in a conductor) so if you enclose something well enough inside a metal enclosure it can survive an EMP, this is called shielding, and you see it all the time. The cables hooking up your home entertainment center, or the audio amplifiers in your car stereo are shielded. The inner signal cables are wrapped with an aluminum foil and then grounded. This same shielding techinique is what keeps the 60Hz AC from power cords from causing 60 Hz noise on your audio, If you've ever bought really cheap cables, you may have heard this noise when you put the audio cables too close to power cables.

Answer 3

This is an excellent question. The EMP pulse is a essentially a radio wave. Radio waves work by a form of electronic induction. Almost like the field around a large magnet. I would venture to say that computer type equipment would be fried since the circuitry is a lot smaller (condensed). The power supply is a lot cleaner with little noise in a computer. The circuit boards are also a lot more sensitive since the newer components are also smaller and susceptible to electronic interference. Some televisions are engineered a little more tougher since they must stand up to a little more interference from the noise in the line voltage. I always visualize the EMP pulse as a large cell phone permeated the electronic equipment with microwave energy. Some items may be fried, some may make it.
Good night and good luck.

Answer 4

EMP generates high currents in very short pulses. Electronic semiconductors would be fried wether turned on or off. Any ting without modern semiconductors would probally work.Old cars, valve radios, electric moters, gen sets ect. A transistor radio or laptop left in a closed metal box like a filing cabenet would still also work as the box would shield the electronics from the emp.

Answer 5

yes; very fried ; everything would act like a receiving antenna ; pulse is a very descriptive term

Answer 6

Yes, microchips would fry!