4 ms·
Relevant story: back in grad school, I did a few experiments in the (old) MIT wind tunnel, now torn down. Before starting up the fans, the guy running the cont
by mkeeter 3y ago
Relevant story: back in grad school, I did a few experiments in the (old) MIT wind tunnel, now torn down.
Before starting up the fans, the guy running the control booth picked up the phone and had a short conversation, roughly
"Hi, this is [name] at the wind tunnel; can we turn it on?"
[someone on the other end replies]
"Great, thanks."
I asked who he was calling, and he explained that he had to check with the power company before powering it on. This was mid-winter, so grid demand was low; apparently during the summer (when everyone has ACs on), the start-up load could cause brownouts!
- JimtheCoder 3y agoThat must have been one Bad A*S wind tunnel...
- dtgriscom 3y agoI took a tour of it once, where they started it on low (<= 20MPH) with us inside it. Very cool, and it was fun to imagine it running full bore.
- ThePowerOfFuet 3y agoEither swear or don't, but your comment looks strange in its current form.
- bombcar 3y agoI was touring a datacenter and they got the reverse call; California was experiencing some power issues so the local electric company would call them and say "switch to the back up gens, we need to cut you off".