The Wave Progect
How does the number of wraps affect the strength of an EMP?
Ben Black & Will Swenson
Abstract: A EMP generator is a little out there in the thing that we could have done. We were very interested in destroying technology. We just happened to stumble over the plans on how to build on of these toys. It was perfect in the way that it fit all the parameters that we had to meet. The EMP was made out of a disposable camera and a few cords. We believe that the capacitor was not powerful enough. This project was a lot of fun to make and test even though it was scary at times.
Introduction: Our topic is an EMP an EMP is short for and electromagnetic pulse. Electromagnetic definition: of or relating to the interrelation of electric currents or fields and magnetic fields. An EMP is an intense burst of energy from an acceleration charge. This usually results in electronics being destroyed by the electromagnetic wave. In our case this charge came from a capacitor from a disposable camera. We thought this would be a cool experiment because this a globally growing threat that not many people know about. We have played games where when you send out an EMP all electronic devices are disabled, we wanted to try this on our own. We started looking up designs and found out that a safe way to do it is to keep it in a specific zone so it would not destroy everything adjacent to it. We think it will destroy the electronic device in the specified area.
Question and Hypothesis: If the number of wraps of wire affects the phone then the phone will be destroyed because of the electromagnetic waves.
Methods & Materials: Materials for our project are:
Soldering iron
Enamel coated wire (thicker the better)
On/Off switch
Tape
Flat head screwdriver (for prying)
Pliers
Stranded core wire
Disposable camera
Wire Strippers
Sand paper
Tube/cup, or circular object with diameter of 2 inches or about 5 centimeters
We started off by taking the camera apart (safely) to get the circuit board and the capacitor the rest we threw away. We then followed a youtube video on the rest of the process. We then discharged any force from the capacitor by using an insulated screwdriver and touching to of the metal pieces together. After that we soldered a wire from the the circuit board to an on/off switch. We took our bottle that was a little over 5 cm and put tape around it with the adhesive facing the outside. Then we wrapped wire around it and taped over that so the adhesive was touching the wire on both sides. You could then slide it off without trouble. We did this five times adding more wraps each time: 1, 5, 10, 15, 20. We left room on each side of the wire so that we could attach it to the capacitor circuit board and the on/off switch. We used alligator clips to attach the wire wraps so we wouldn't have to solder and resolder a bunch. Once we did that the setup was complete. We then started with the 1 wrap wire and put the phone in and worked up from there changing out the wire wraps.
Results: The results of our experiment were inconclusive. We could not see any effect on the phone with the different numbered wraps. We believe that the capacitor we had was not powerful enough to create a strong electromagnetic field. It is hard to say what number of wrap worked the best because nothing happened to the phone.
Discussion: As we stated above the results we found were inconclusive. We will try to find a bigger capacitor to see the results of the cell phone with different wraps of the wire. We are disappointed with the results that we were not able to find a clear answer but proud of us on making a semi working EMP generator. Because the results were inconclusive the significance between the results and hypothesis was minimal at best. During this experiment we learned a lot about electromagnetic waves and how they are created. The expected results were that the coil with 20 wraps would work better than the one with 5 wraps. We were not able to collect data do to our EMP not being powerful enough. We know from research and questioning that the more wraps means a stronger electromagnetic pulse, so we were bummed that we couldn't prove it ourselves. If we are able to find another capacitor we can get results and data and prove our hypothesis wrong or right.
Ben Black & Will Swenson
Abstract: A EMP generator is a little out there in the thing that we could have done. We were very interested in destroying technology. We just happened to stumble over the plans on how to build on of these toys. It was perfect in the way that it fit all the parameters that we had to meet. The EMP was made out of a disposable camera and a few cords. We believe that the capacitor was not powerful enough. This project was a lot of fun to make and test even though it was scary at times.
Introduction: Our topic is an EMP an EMP is short for and electromagnetic pulse. Electromagnetic definition: of or relating to the interrelation of electric currents or fields and magnetic fields. An EMP is an intense burst of energy from an acceleration charge. This usually results in electronics being destroyed by the electromagnetic wave. In our case this charge came from a capacitor from a disposable camera. We thought this would be a cool experiment because this a globally growing threat that not many people know about. We have played games where when you send out an EMP all electronic devices are disabled, we wanted to try this on our own. We started looking up designs and found out that a safe way to do it is to keep it in a specific zone so it would not destroy everything adjacent to it. We think it will destroy the electronic device in the specified area.
Question and Hypothesis: If the number of wraps of wire affects the phone then the phone will be destroyed because of the electromagnetic waves.
Methods & Materials: Materials for our project are:
Soldering iron
Enamel coated wire (thicker the better)
On/Off switch
Tape
Flat head screwdriver (for prying)
Pliers
Stranded core wire
Disposable camera
Wire Strippers
Sand paper
Tube/cup, or circular object with diameter of 2 inches or about 5 centimeters
We started off by taking the camera apart (safely) to get the circuit board and the capacitor the rest we threw away. We then followed a youtube video on the rest of the process. We then discharged any force from the capacitor by using an insulated screwdriver and touching to of the metal pieces together. After that we soldered a wire from the the circuit board to an on/off switch. We took our bottle that was a little over 5 cm and put tape around it with the adhesive facing the outside. Then we wrapped wire around it and taped over that so the adhesive was touching the wire on both sides. You could then slide it off without trouble. We did this five times adding more wraps each time: 1, 5, 10, 15, 20. We left room on each side of the wire so that we could attach it to the capacitor circuit board and the on/off switch. We used alligator clips to attach the wire wraps so we wouldn't have to solder and resolder a bunch. Once we did that the setup was complete. We then started with the 1 wrap wire and put the phone in and worked up from there changing out the wire wraps.
Results: The results of our experiment were inconclusive. We could not see any effect on the phone with the different numbered wraps. We believe that the capacitor we had was not powerful enough to create a strong electromagnetic field. It is hard to say what number of wrap worked the best because nothing happened to the phone.
Discussion: As we stated above the results we found were inconclusive. We will try to find a bigger capacitor to see the results of the cell phone with different wraps of the wire. We are disappointed with the results that we were not able to find a clear answer but proud of us on making a semi working EMP generator. Because the results were inconclusive the significance between the results and hypothesis was minimal at best. During this experiment we learned a lot about electromagnetic waves and how they are created. The expected results were that the coil with 20 wraps would work better than the one with 5 wraps. We were not able to collect data do to our EMP not being powerful enough. We know from research and questioning that the more wraps means a stronger electromagnetic pulse, so we were bummed that we couldn't prove it ourselves. If we are able to find another capacitor we can get results and data and prove our hypothesis wrong or right.