You can make an EMP with basically trash and a bit of physics knowledge. Basically you press the button and all the unhardened electronics nearby break a little (or a lot).
Tech equipment that’s designed to resist an attack is often called “hardened”. It could be a physical attack, something like an EMP, or regular old hacking. Military electronics are often hardened against all of them. Generally, when it comes to physical attacks and EMPs, the “harder” you make the device, the more it costs and the bigger and heavier it is.
The physics knowledge required is covered by the various easy to find tutorials online for building a pocket EMP device. Basically, you make an antenna and shove pulses of electricity into it. The antenna then “broadcasts” the pulse of electricity into the air as electromagnetic waves (i.e. radio waves). Then the little tiny wires in nearby electronics act as receiving antennas, where those radio waves end up causing a power surge.
It’s possible to use your own body as an EMP generator. Just build up some static electricity and touch some electronic device that’s grounded (same as plugged in, usually). If your spark is big enough and the device unshielded enough, it’ll likely glitch or reboot or something. Modern cell phones are usually at least a little bit hardened and unlikely to have serious problems, since people are always doing things like rolling around in bed and then touching their phones.
You can make an EMP with basically trash and a bit of physics knowledge. Basically you press the button and all the unhardened electronics nearby break a little (or a lot).
what makes an electronic hard? how much physics knowledge?
Tech equipment that’s designed to resist an attack is often called “hardened”. It could be a physical attack, something like an EMP, or regular old hacking. Military electronics are often hardened against all of them. Generally, when it comes to physical attacks and EMPs, the “harder” you make the device, the more it costs and the bigger and heavier it is.
The physics knowledge required is covered by the various easy to find tutorials online for building a pocket EMP device. Basically, you make an antenna and shove pulses of electricity into it. The antenna then “broadcasts” the pulse of electricity into the air as electromagnetic waves (i.e. radio waves). Then the little tiny wires in nearby electronics act as receiving antennas, where those radio waves end up causing a power surge.
It’s possible to use your own body as an EMP generator. Just build up some static electricity and touch some electronic device that’s grounded (same as plugged in, usually). If your spark is big enough and the device unshielded enough, it’ll likely glitch or reboot or something. Modern cell phones are usually at least a little bit hardened and unlikely to have serious problems, since people are always doing things like rolling around in bed and then touching their phones.