[Check6]

**EMP is a tad overblown IMO. It can happen and it can affect limited areas, inversely proportional to the SQUARE OF THE DISTANCE from the event (i.e. the apparent strength drops off real fast).**

I don’t this is so with exo-atmospheric EMP. It is a line-of- sight effect and the inverse square law does not apply.

[_Jim]

It is a line-of- sight effect and the inverse square law does not apply.

What - a new branch of physics has been discovered?

[Clinging Bitterly]

Line of sight is exactly where the inverse square rule DOES apply. I would allow that the high altitude and possibly the wave shape would combine to negate further effects from things like ground absorption, but I don't believe inverse square takes those things into account anyway.

But I could be all wet. It's not my field. I know enough about RF electromagnetic radiation to get an Extra Class Ham ticket, which means I know I can feed a WHOLE LOT less energy than the dreaded EMP into a small piece of metal in the air and it can reach the other side of the world. Which makes the thought of what could happen in a very high energy pulse just a little bit scary (indeed, a mere lightning bolt causes me some concern).

On the other hand, the usual characteristics of an electromagnetic wave which make atmospheric propagation possible don't exist in a pulse unless and until it approaches the theoretical perfect form. I'm no physicist, but I don't believe the phenomena thought to be possible using known technology can be described as near perfect - so it would be radiation at a somewhat limited (super high frequency) wavelength range roughly defined by it's duration, plus it's harmonics, the strength of those finite components reduced by distance and atmospheric absorption in accordance with the usual earthly conventions. Only a perfect pulse would be universally resonant and become the ultimate destroyer.