ZAP GUNS AIM AT SADDAM

New York Post ^ | 1/20/03 | CYNTHIA R. FAGEN

[George W. Bush]

The Pentagon's and many other crucial U.S. military communications and intelligence electronics are shielded against EMP and spy devices.

One has to wonder if Iraq has protected themselves as well. Even with the embargos, it's not very high tech stuff and underground bunkers would have an advantage.

I suspect this is a psy-ops tactic.

[Erasmus]

This is still scrambled. The sentence seems to be saying that the bomb yields as much ENERGY as Hoover Dam does in 24 hours, and that this figure would be 2 billion watt-seconds (joules). But since I don't know what the power capacity of Hoover Dam is, I can't say if this is actually what is meant.

Here's what I think happened.

The writer apparently didn't know the distinction between power and energy. (Of course, were talking physics here, and I think she was too used to colloquial English!) Her source said to her that the weapon produces a peak power output equal to that of Hoover dam, which BTW is plausibly 2GVA (reactive gigawatts), and she mistakenly added the phrase "in 24 hours," seeming to bring energy into the description. Her source, if technically literate, could not possibly have meant the energy produced by Hoover in 24 hours.

Therefore, I focussed on the "2 billion watts" and discarded the "24 hours" as a red herring.

If the above scenario is correct, then the rewrite is too.

Remember: Energy is what weapons blow stuff up with -- measured in joules, ergs, watt-seconds, and such things. Power is a measure of how fast something produces the energy.

Quite true. However, these weapons, and lasers for that matter, depend on delivering a small or moderate amount of energy in a small space or area and in an extremely brief period of time. Come to think of it, the same is true of a bullet, but with a less extreme brevity of energy delivery.

You could produce 2 billion watt-seconds of energy from a hamster cage, but it would sure take a lot of hamsters!

Or one hamster running continuously for 633.76 years. Although the energy output of Hoover dam per day is actually 86400 * 2GW-seconds, or 172.8 terawatt-seconds (joules), so to match Hoover's daily energy output our poor hamster would actually have to run 54.76 million years.

BTW, I guess I'm an expert; I once kibbitzed on the design of a hamster-powered electrical generator and provided the firmware for its odometer. <>==<)B^)

[armyboy]

The "e-bomb" contains as much power as what the Hoover Dam generates in 24 hours - about 2 billion watts - and it can all be loaded onto long-range cruise missiles. -----------------Unfortunately anyone with $400 can build one of these things. Theye won't be as powerful but they still will do the same thing. Awhile ago there was an article in Popular Mechanichs about this bomb. They really are quite simple.

[tortoise]

Unfortunately anyone with $400 can build one of these things. Theye won't be as powerful but they still will do the same thing. Awhile ago there was an article in Popular Mechanichs about this bomb. They really are quite simple.

You are talking about spark gap generators. The military is using explosive-driven flux compression generators. Vastly different capabilities and technologies. The flux of a well-engineered FCG type device can exceed that of a nuclear powered EMP weapon. While it is theoretically possible to build an FCG for very cheap, in practice it takes quite a bit of engineering skill to make one that works correctly. Doubly so if you want focused electromagnetic spectrum as an output.

[Redcloak]

This is a typical case of a reporter over-simplifying a technical term. These weapons typically have output energies in the tens of megajoules. Let's say that a particular device has an output of ~50 MJ. If that energy is dumped in ~25 milliseconds, then the power (joules per second) is ~2 GW. Thus a more impressive, and clearer, way of stating the device's output would have been to say that "It produces in 24 thousandths of a second what the Hoover Dam produces in 24 hours." (But that would require the Liberal Arts major who wrote the piece to have more than a passing understanding of the science involved!)

[socal_parrot]

[Search4Truth]

I thought I was the only one that did that kinda stuff in high school LOL.

What you experienced is called an inductive kickback. The rapid collapse of the magnetic field induced a voltage greater than the voltage that created it. You should have tried it with an old automobile ignition coil. Now that's a real crowd pleaser.

Now I could tell a story about getting hit with a high-energy circuit. It’ll knock you into last month, if not into oblivion.

[Darksheare]

Like 440 AC elevator generators?

[bayourod]

I was that kid. Would you like to buy some life insurance?

[lwoodham]

Yep, I did this too. But mine was a tin foil covered box with a tiny slit that separated the foil into 2 halves with a wire attached to each from inside the box. One wire was connected to 1 end of an 88 mH loading coil and the other end of the coil was connected to a horizontally mounted washer. The other wire from the outer foil was connected to one side of a 9V battery with the other side of the battery connected to a nail that was suspended so that it hang, without touching, through the center of the washer when the box was sitting on a level surfce. If you picked the box up it didn't take you long to inspect it and put it down. I'm guessing about 1 mSec.

[thulldud]

Thus a more impressive, and clearer, way of stating the device's output would have been to say that "It produces in 24 thousandths of a second what the Hoover Dam produces in 24 hours."

Allow me to rephrase that:

It produces energy at the same rate as Hoover Dam does. (Of course, Hoover Dam does it 24x7, as long as there's water in Lake Mead. This weapon gives out after 24 thousandths of a second.)

Btw, I'm a liberal arts type meself.

[sam_paine]

LOL. Would that be imPULSE buying?

[fire_eye]

How are WE protected against such devices?

They can't be delivered by camel.

[John Lenin]

Puts a whole new meaning to the term "I'm shocked " ....

[Aric2000]

I used to have an old Plymouth satelite hotrod, had a very HIGH energy coil in it.

I was working in the garage on it one day, and told a friend to kick it over, problem was, I was touching the car with one hand and had the center wire of the distributor in my hand holding it near the head, trying to see the spark, well, IT HAD SPARK!!!

Threw me across the garage, hurt like hell!!

[ffusco]

Years of working on British bikes have convinced me that electricity is magic. But seriously? what happened to the class when the field collapsed? Was it like getting a big shock when walking on shag carpet? Did it hurt? What caused them all to jump out of their seats? Did they all feel like ants were crawling on them for a second?

[MHGinTN]

I'm wondering about the range from detonation site ... stop the bio weapons scud launches Saddam would toss toward Israel in the event we go after him this time.

[John Lenin]

My feeling is we have to hit Saddam with everything we got all at once. I really believe BillyBob set us up for a nuke disaster whether it be here at home or in the middle east somewhere. After his statement that the US should get used to not being the leader of the world my worst nightmares are popping up.

[MHGinTN]

Gulf War I stopped short of removing Saddam because of his blackmail tactics toward Israel. This time we will put an umbrella over Iraq (even the Al Sahamiya desert) that will prevent his attacks on Israel. I think he sees the handwriting on the wall this time and will go into exile. I can live with that, if the UN takes over Iraq for the next ten years, to oust the Ba'athist party from power.

[carpio]

I wonder if this weapon is available locally to combat Boom Box cars and ultra noisy Flow Master Exhaust systems like the ones that just woke me up a few minutes ago???