It's Christmas Day!

[Jonas]

(21 November 2013, 18:35)Mortblanc Wrote: Question????

Why are the automobiles still running when everything else is down?

Ahh Grasshopper! You must read more carefully!

I wrote:

Quote:About 4PM,... the electricity goes out... There are a few headlights moving on the highway, and candles and flashlights are slowly appearing in the houses of a few neighbors, but in general, everything is dark.

Older diesel cars (like a Mercedes Benz 280D) have no electronics and once started, need no battery to run. They are also equipped with generators, not alternators, hence less vulnerable to EMP (although that's not necessarily the problem in this scenario).

Quote:You and the family members all check your cell phones - no signals!

Since the cell phones power up, Grandma and Grandpa's house, made of stone, may have acted like a Faraday Cage, and if this was an EMP event it probably was not a strong EMP event.

Quote:Your brother gets the idea to go out to the car and check the radio to hear if this electrical failure is being reported, but when he turns on the radio, all he and you can hear, up and down the dial, AM and FM, is static. No commercial station is broadcasting as far as you both can tell.

The only thing that you and your brother can be sure of at this point is that the AM and FM commercial band transmitting frequencies are subject to very strong interference. Nothing else can be read into the situation.

A steel auto body, if grounded (parked where the bumper touches a wet building or the frame touches the ground, or water or snow touches it), can act as a Faraday Cage. The radio powers up, but it wasn't powered when the electricity went off. Note BIL hasn't tried to start the car. Again, don't read into the scenario.