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From: gsnow@pro-freedom.cts.com (System Administrator)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Electromagnetic pulse from conventional explosives
Message-ID: <1991Jan21.035412.3674@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 21 Jan 91 03:54:12 GMT
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From: gsnow@pro-freedom.cts.com (System Administrator)
In-Reply-To: message from magnus%thep.lu.se@Urd.lth.se

|It is well known that exploding a nuclear charge produces an electromagnetic
|pulse that cripples electronic equipment within in a wide radius.
|I've always thought this was caused by the massive amount of ionizing
|radiation from the explosion. However, several posters have mentioned that
|you can get an EM pulse from conventional explosives, too. What is the
|cause of the pulse in this case? Is it as powerful (and damaging) as that
|from a nuclear bomb?

Typically you will find that the amount of EMP is directly relational to the
size of the blast.

If you have enough TNT to equal the blast potenial of a nuclear explosion,
you would get the same amount of EMP that you would get with the same size
nuclear explosion.  As far as I know, it has little to do with the radiation
involved, is it just the side-effect of such a large explosion.

Gary
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