At 06:51 PM 8/5/97 -0400, you wrote:

EMP is will take out SILICON based computers as the excess radio waves and
charged particles, will burn out the circuitry....  (Sort of like the
particle cannon which was developed to deliver a concentrated stream of
neutron particles to fry Soviet nuclear warheads...)

EMP will not kill batteries...  EMP will not kill military class
computers...(Today, the United States, thanks to extensive nuclear

 (funny, I thought the military's computers also used silicon chips)

testing, is prepared somewhat for a nuclear war....  All
MBT's, like the M-1A1 are shielded from Nuclear/Chemical/Biological
weaponry...  In english, a EMP wave will not take out a M1A1 tank...)

 As far as nuclear war, the NBC protection on a tank is primarily intended
to protect the tank and crew from blast, certain radiations such as X-ray,
beta, and alpha, and radioactive debris from a nuclear bomb.  It will not
protect the crew from neutron radiation which is one of the reasons why the
military was interested in a neutron bomb.

EMP will not take out the Honda generator that you have downstairs in the
basement...  EMP will not take out a 1950 chevy,with the exception of the
radio :P  In short, if it ain't got silicon and integrated circuits
inside, it's 100% safe from EMP....

  Wrong.  EMP can cause a multi-million peak transient voltage with a few
amps behind it to come down your power line, which will take out a lot of
equipment.  EMP can also create enough voltage for arcing across a
considerable air gap.  There are significant doubts about the effectiveness
of the shielding on things like tanks and planes.  The hardened sites at
bases use a lot of faraday cage shielding and enormous electrical surge
arrestors.  There are two types of EMP from a nuclear blast - Source region
EMP, and (if detonated sufficiently high up) High altitude EMP.  The latter
is primarily what the military tries to protect against since that can
affect a far wider area than the former.  Usually, if you're close enough
to worry about source region EMP, you are also worrying about the flash,
blast, and radiation .   



 dml