Talk:EMP/Archive 1

If memory serves, wasn't the device that Apollo used to create the EMP not an actual EMP device, but an old "FTL coil" or something like that?Kuralyov 10:40, 11 Jun 2005 (EDT)

He referred to them as "electric pulse generators from the Galactica." How they got on the Colonial One is beyond me. He said he used them to manipulate the hyperspace engines to create the illusion of a nuke. He also mentioned that he used the tactic back in war college, so I'm guessing it's EMP. -- YeNguyen 12:05, 17 Jul 2005 (EST)

It is likely these EMP generators were placed on the ship as part of the offloading of various unneeded equipment from the Galactica Museum-to-be. Being a government vessel, the ship would have sufficient clearance to carry the stuff back home for later return to a Colonial miliary depot. Apollo didn't manupulate anything with the generators, he simply activated them. The EMP created disabled any electronic impulses in the missiles, making them glide by harmlessly, and sending off a pulse that would normally come from these weapons, so the Cylons were convinced that the missiles left their mark without a visual confirmtion. It also had a temporary side-effect on Colonial One's occupants, since human brains also work on electric impulses. It is likely that these items were actually used as early weapons in certain Cylon battle scenarios. Spencerian 01:46, 18 Jul 2005 (EDT)

Some thoughts on EMPs in BSG: Space based nuclear detonations can't be compared with atmospheric detonations. EMPs only really exist in atmospheres where the interaction of high intensity gamma rays with matter creates a huge magnetic resonance field. So nukes in space wouldn't disable spacecraft electronics. You might get some Compton Scattering from the matter in the nuke itself, but there is no medium to create a huge EM field. But I think it makes sense that nukes could blind Dradis sensors by overloading them with radiation (as seen/heard in the Miniseries and Pegasus-Extended).

However EMPs have no effect on the human central nervous system! That Apollo (and the rest of the crew too) went unconscious is either an error in writing or it's an effect of something else in the pulse generation. --Serenity 07:38, 20 September 2006 (CDT)