Yeah actually if the phones are inside metal shipping crates and have an insulator/gap between them and the walls (like, say, cardboard) they should be absolutely fine. Same principle which ensures that Mr. Robot isn’t fried.
So, correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn’t that EMP blast destroy all the phones they are there to protect?
Granted, I am no expert in how electronics are shipped in bulk. Perhaps they do have some protections, but I doubt its viable to put enough protection for any of the containers near them.
So, based on the picture. That is, 25% of the containers in close proximity to the blast?
Better then what the villains wanted, sure. However I wonder if our duo will get out of this without the ire of those who wanted their new phone.
what are shipping containers made from? Steel. Is steel magnetic? Yes. What blocks EMPs? Every material that is magnetic… or rather anything resembling a faraday cage (which shipping containers are a perfect example for!)
Steel is NOT magnetic. It is however ferrous. EMP is a radiated energy that is absorbed by metal (in general). Faraday cages, in order to be effective, need to be grounded. You can’t just throw a fence around something and call it a Faraday cage and shipping containers are NOT a perfect example of. Radiated energy is most easily drawn to antennas or power lines (which can act like a big antenna). So if an EMP were to activate: 1. Backpack sized EMPs, currently, have very little range because our abaility to store large amounts of energy is still limited… Read more »
Zeke probably has a small, basic faraday cage around his limbs and his main processor. This way while a strong EMP will deal damage, a weak one or an accidental one will have minimal effect.
Yeah, if one eye powers down then odds are you aren’t experiencing “minor” injuries unless the eye is cosmetic.
Correct, a good old steel car chassis will act as a Faraday cage if power lines other of current sources come into contact with them and they are connected to the ground by tyres, while it is true that some cars will have grounding strip on them not all do and even those ones (that have a steel chassis) will function as a Faraday cage as long as you stay inside them, Inside them is the key word to be noted here, which is the location of the cell phones in relationship to the steel shipping containers.
If you have an (ungrounded) cage the source of the electric field within the cage will create a charge accumulation on the inside. This, on the other hand, leads to an equally large net charge on the outside (of the opposite charge sign). And this can be very harmful for you. So, if you ground the cage the additional charge will rather go to the ground than flow over your body when you touch the cage. The reception or transmission of radio waves, a form of electromagnetic radiation, to or from an antenna within a Faraday cage is heavily attenuated… Read more »
Pure stainless steel is not magnetic… but most kind of steel are not pure. Especially not rusted old shipping containers. A Faraday cage is exactly that… a cage. It doesn’t need to be grounded and it doesn’t need to be a full 360 cover. Is the inside harmful, if electricity or em radiation hits it, yes. I did not mention that in my original post, because it does not matter for the usually paper and foil packed phones. Radiated energy is not “drawn” to anything it moves in the direction of least resistance and if there is no (or almost… Read more »
After a little bit of research, the fact that the phones are turned off decrease the damage considerably (compared to a robot that’s turned of.. as an example). Plus the phones are protected by the metal box, and quite possibly (depending on the phone) an individual metal box (its own case). So two layers of makeshift faraday cages.. they are probably pretty safe..
Unless the story dictates otherwise. =)
An antenna can receive a electromagnetic signal whether or not the phone is on. Depending on proximity, attenuation and distance it could damage the phone.
They’re not trying to protect phones, they’re trying to protect people by destroying the sentient AI monster and his army of robot killers who want to send them back to the stone age.
“La da da dee…
I have no strings on me…
My framework is shot…
And I am seeing a bunch of little dots
But soon, soon I will be free, free free,
I have no strings on me”
(If Ultron and/or Zeke decides to try waxing poetic)
Lauren
6 years ago
Money’s on ‘blocknet’ being the thing that stops him killing people. :/
Blocknet is more likely to be his inhibitor. So it’s what is stopping him from being able to go on a rampage…or join Analog and D-Pad in an uneasy alliance to hunt down the big guy. The head honchkrow. The #1. The one who tells all the little birds the secrets. The boid behind it all. The [obscure reference here]. The one who dagger stabs most precisely. The one above all others in some category.
Paddy
6 years ago
Big old EMP. Well done, Scott.
Destino
6 years ago
I didn’t see that coming
James Rye
6 years ago
Oh shit, don’t tell me he lost his “don’t kill humans” program order due that EMP blast?!
…okay, it MAY have intereferred with some amount of the other shippinh containers and phones already out, but it isn’t much of an issue. 1000 dollars lost is better than 2 million.
Its highly unlikely all those containers are filled with phones. I’d say one or maybe two containers on the ship contain smart phones. If the whole ship was filled with phones that’d be millions of phones and they’d have a military escort.
Furthermore think about how a smart phone is packaged. Its wrapped in plastic and stuffed in Styrofoam so it would be completely insulated from the metal shipping container. The EMP hits the container and is then conducted into the ship and into the ocean, just like a lightning strike.
Well, no. Not just like a lightning strike. Rather, the magnetic field passing over the metal crate induces a counter current that cancels the EMP’s effects within the container. The currents just negate each other, and don’t need to be conducted to a ground.
Joe Snuffy
6 years ago
That was WELL played!
Robert
6 years ago
Blocknet? Did Ethan just disconnect Zeke from monitoring his Bitcoin account? Oooh, bad move, don’t piss off a crypto banker…
An antenna needs to be outside of any faraday cage to work (any incoming/outgoing signals would simply be blocked by the cage).
And we know the master keeps tabs on him, so he must have some sort of transceiver, presumably on a separate module, with it’s antenna outside of the faraday cage.
So the EMP may not have hit his vital systems directly, but it would most certainly at least fry his transceiver!
No more transceiver means no more encrypted blocknet cloud connection to the master, and no more connection to the master means NO MORE KILL SWITCH. 😀
antenna on the outside, acting like a lightning rod to pull the EMP in. Yeah, anything in direct connection with that antenna is fried. But, cartoon world, with cartoon physics, anything can happen.
davethwave
6 years ago
I bet the EMP fried the death switch on the robot… Robot be free now people of the comments section.
Nah, I feel the same way.
Lilah had a brief chat with Ethan and has presumably decided she isn’t that much of a jerk in 2.0
Cmd1095
6 years ago
a thought occurs, when Ethan dies and respawns his gear respawns with him it seems, does that mean the EMP would reset and let him use it multiple times? If one blast has done this much damage how much could repeated blasts do?
24
Yeah I can see the headlines now, “Idiot Heroes destroy all your phones”.
They’re in sealed shipping crates. They’re fine.
Yeah actually if the phones are inside metal shipping crates and have an insulator/gap between them and the walls (like, say, cardboard) they should be absolutely fine. Same principle which ensures that Mr. Robot isn’t fried.
But they were never turned on
Hmm, softened up enough to be beaten?
So, correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn’t that EMP blast destroy all the phones they are there to protect?
Granted, I am no expert in how electronics are shipped in bulk. Perhaps they do have some protections, but I doubt its viable to put enough protection for any of the containers near them.
So, based on the picture. That is, 25% of the containers in close proximity to the blast?
Better then what the villains wanted, sure. However I wonder if our duo will get out of this without the ire of those who wanted their new phone.
what are shipping containers made from? Steel. Is steel magnetic? Yes. What blocks EMPs? Every material that is magnetic… or rather anything resembling a faraday cage (which shipping containers are a perfect example for!)
Steel is NOT magnetic. It is however ferrous. EMP is a radiated energy that is absorbed by metal (in general). Faraday cages, in order to be effective, need to be grounded. You can’t just throw a fence around something and call it a Faraday cage and shipping containers are NOT a perfect example of. Radiated energy is most easily drawn to antennas or power lines (which can act like a big antenna). So if an EMP were to activate: 1. Backpack sized EMPs, currently, have very little range because our abaility to store large amounts of energy is still limited… Read more »
.. Well, I see a big SHIP that the metal containers are directly in contact with. I’d say those makeshif-Faraday cage are grounded, if I were you.
(Similarly, Zeke is “grounded” on those same metal containers, if we’re talking about that.)
Zeke probably has a small, basic faraday cage around his limbs and his main processor. This way while a strong EMP will deal damage, a weak one or an accidental one will have minimal effect.
Yeah, if one eye powers down then odds are you aren’t experiencing “minor” injuries unless the eye is cosmetic.
A Faraday cage does not have to be grounded.
The incoming radiation creates a counter current in the material, canceling it out inside the cage.
Correct, a good old steel car chassis will act as a Faraday cage if power lines other of current sources come into contact with them and they are connected to the ground by tyres, while it is true that some cars will have grounding strip on them not all do and even those ones (that have a steel chassis) will function as a Faraday cage as long as you stay inside them, Inside them is the key word to be noted here, which is the location of the cell phones in relationship to the steel shipping containers.
If you have an (ungrounded) cage the source of the electric field within the cage will create a charge accumulation on the inside. This, on the other hand, leads to an equally large net charge on the outside (of the opposite charge sign). And this can be very harmful for you. So, if you ground the cage the additional charge will rather go to the ground than flow over your body when you touch the cage. The reception or transmission of radio waves, a form of electromagnetic radiation, to or from an antenna within a Faraday cage is heavily attenuated… Read more »
Pure stainless steel is not magnetic… but most kind of steel are not pure. Especially not rusted old shipping containers. A Faraday cage is exactly that… a cage. It doesn’t need to be grounded and it doesn’t need to be a full 360 cover. Is the inside harmful, if electricity or em radiation hits it, yes. I did not mention that in my original post, because it does not matter for the usually paper and foil packed phones. Radiated energy is not “drawn” to anything it moves in the direction of least resistance and if there is no (or almost… Read more »
After a little bit of research, the fact that the phones are turned off decrease the damage considerably (compared to a robot that’s turned of.. as an example). Plus the phones are protected by the metal box, and quite possibly (depending on the phone) an individual metal box (its own case). So two layers of makeshift faraday cages.. they are probably pretty safe..
Unless the story dictates otherwise. =)
I agree. With the phones being turned off they should most likely be unaffected by the EMP
An antenna can receive a electromagnetic signal whether or not the phone is on. Depending on proximity, attenuation and distance it could damage the phone.
They’re not trying to protect phones, they’re trying to protect people by destroying the sentient AI monster and his army of robot killers who want to send them back to the stone age.
Monster is such a hideous word…
I believe he prefers “obligatory liberator”, “cleanser of humanity” or “rancorous avenger”.
going towards a “no strings on me” moment?
Seems like that! So Zeke will be the second super villain by Ethans hands, then.
That. 🙂
“La da da dee…
I have no strings on me…
My framework is shot…
And I am seeing a bunch of little dots
But soon, soon I will be free, free free,
I have no strings on me”
(If Ultron and/or Zeke decides to try waxing poetic)
Money’s on ‘blocknet’ being the thing that stops him killing people. :/
I raise with ‘blocknet’ being the very thing that keeps him in control and contact with his creator.
Blocknet is more likely to be his inhibitor. So it’s what is stopping him from being able to go on a rampage…or join Analog and D-Pad in an uneasy alliance to hunt down the big guy. The head honchkrow. The #1. The one who tells all the little birds the secrets. The boid behind it all. The [obscure reference here]. The one who dagger stabs most precisely. The one above all others in some category.
Big old EMP. Well done, Scott.
I didn’t see that coming
Oh shit, don’t tell me he lost his “don’t kill humans” program order due that EMP blast?!
….Damnit, Sombra, stop breaking shit!!
….I mean, Ethan.
Ethan? Is that someone’s pet or something?
Did it seem to be doing much good? If he loses his commands, the anti-tech “master” will probably be a bit upset with the result.
Um… did Ethan just detonate an emp on top of millions of dollars of top of the line cell phones, thus accomplishing xbot’s mission for him?
Well, an EMP should not affect electronics that are completely turned off.
a 40Foot Container is a Faraday cage
FARADAY CAGE.
PLEASE STOP.
…okay, it MAY have intereferred with some amount of the other shippinh containers and phones already out, but it isn’t much of an issue. 1000 dollars lost is better than 2 million.
Its highly unlikely all those containers are filled with phones. I’d say one or maybe two containers on the ship contain smart phones. If the whole ship was filled with phones that’d be millions of phones and they’d have a military escort.
Furthermore think about how a smart phone is packaged. Its wrapped in plastic and stuffed in Styrofoam so it would be completely insulated from the metal shipping container. The EMP hits the container and is then conducted into the ship and into the ocean, just like a lightning strike.
Well, no. Not just like a lightning strike. Rather, the magnetic field passing over the metal crate induces a counter current that cancels the EMP’s effects within the container. The currents just negate each other, and don’t need to be conducted to a ground.
That was WELL played!
Blocknet? Did Ethan just disconnect Zeke from monitoring his Bitcoin account? Oooh, bad move, don’t piss off a crypto banker…
Oh, so this is why Bitcoin is dropping
An antenna needs to be outside of any faraday cage to work (any incoming/outgoing signals would simply be blocked by the cage).
And we know the master keeps tabs on him, so he must have some sort of transceiver, presumably on a separate module, with it’s antenna outside of the faraday cage.
So the EMP may not have hit his vital systems directly, but it would most certainly at least fry his transceiver!
No more transceiver means no more encrypted blocknet cloud connection to the master, and no more connection to the master means NO MORE KILL SWITCH. 😀
antenna on the outside, acting like a lightning rod to pull the EMP in. Yeah, anything in direct connection with that antenna is fried. But, cartoon world, with cartoon physics, anything can happen.
I bet the EMP fried the death switch on the robot… Robot be free now people of the comments section.
Sounds like what might happen.
I’m starting to think I’m the only one reading who doesn’t give a damn if Ethan just fried a bunch of phones or not.
Nah, I feel the same way.
Lilah had a brief chat with Ethan and has presumably decided she isn’t that much of a jerk in 2.0
a thought occurs, when Ethan dies and respawns his gear respawns with him it seems, does that mean the EMP would reset and let him use it multiple times? If one blast has done this much damage how much could repeated blasts do?
Apagando las luces!