Why does starting a car interrupt the radio?
In: Engineering
The starter motor takes a huge amount of power, hundreds of amps. When you pull that much current out of a battery and electrical system the voltage will drop a lot due to losses of in the battery and wires. This causes the power to the radio to drop below the minimum voltage it needs to run and so it shuts off.
This is also what causes the headlights to dim while starting the car (assuming non LED lights, led ones get more complicated)
The power system on a car can be very nasty, not only does it dip when you start the car it will also have a big voltage spike when you stop using the starter motor. A lot of energy gets tied up in the magnetic fields inside the starter motor and is then released when the motor is shut off, this can cause spikes of thousands of volts. Never connect anything to a car electrical system that’s not specifically designed for use in a car.
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