Re: what causes loss of all electrical power in a localized area?

William

You are better off talking to an electrical power engineer for an answer 
than me. I can not explain why `small areas' would suffer from power brown-outs.

The only thing I can think of is sporadic equipment failure, surging or 
equipment close to failure. Typically if some equipment was built with parts 
near to their rated tolerance it works fine until something unexpected happens. 
The equipment fails and everyhting is restarted, no fault is found. This 
happens regularly in my job working with computers. Faults often require an 
exact set of circumstances to be triggered. 

There is an effect called Electro-Magnetic Pulse caused when an Nuclear 
Warhead Explodes. This totally destroys all electronic equipment within 
several tens of miles of where the bomb went off. Not too mention the large 
bang and flash of light A-bombs give off as well. 

Very strong magnetic fields can affect electrical currents. But it has to be 
stronger than that naturally created by a high voltage cable anyway. What 
happens is that a moving magnetic field creates an electrical filed and vice 
versa. If a strong varying magnetic field is created near a power line it can 
induce a current interfering with the one in the cable. You 
would need the sort of magnet that powers a linear accelerator requiring 
several generating stations to affect a large area or a high voltage power 
line though.

As to your cars breaking down I have no idea. Pure coincidence I suppose. I 
can not explain that scientifically.

Before invoking paranormal explanations for something it is better to see if 
there is a normal explanation or whether people are seeing patterns that do 
not exist. Even scientists are prone to making this mistake. This is why all 
research is independently reviewed before acceptance.. This is one of the 
prime tenets of science, test it then try and disprove it. It is also 
important that someone else can verify you. It is not good enough in science 
that an explanation simply fits the facts- it must be testable, predict new 
findings and can be falsified. This is another prime tenet - falsifiability. 
Basically if my theory is correct then this should not happen. Is this then 
obeserved or not. 

If you have a hypothesis that UFO's are causing these happenings how can you 
test it. For starters has anyone else seen anything odd.  Are `strange lights' 
in the sky seen everytime there is a power cut. Has there been a spate of cars 
breaking down for no reason.Does your car always have a flat battery after a 
power cut  Do other explanations exist that fit the facts better. Basically it 
is necessary to think of a test that fits your idea and do it. If the test 
repeats the findings every time you know you are on to something. If not the 
idea is flawed and you have to go back to step one and try again. This is the 
grist of Science, most of it is failure and repeating experiments to make sure 
they work as expected. 

I am trying not to sound pedantic, dismissive and superior here. It is 
important to think about what is happening, question the reasoning and present 
a theory that stands up to  testing. 

I would reccomend reading Carl Sagans' The Demon Haunted World. It's 
a good treatise on the scientific method and how science works.

----Admin message:------
I'd endorse that. I recommend every visitor to the MSN to track down this book
in their library. It's a easy and humorous book, but the message is serious -
In the modern world, NOT caring or trying to understand science and technology
is dangerous for your health, income and well-being and leaves you vulnerable to
all kinds of baloney! 
- Max Sang
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