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Rant: My kid asked me why planes have so many wires and it made me think

I was explaining my job to my 7 year old and she just pointed at a diagram and said 'but why don't they just use one big one?'. I mean, idk, it just hit different trying to explain redundancy and signal integrity to a kid. How do you guys explain what we do to people who don't get it?
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simonh74
simonh741mo ago
Oh man, that's the best question. Try explaining that if the one big wire breaks, the plane turns into a glider. Good luck with that talk.
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adam_adams
adam_adams1mo ago
Yeah that "turns into a glider" line got me too. I always figured there were backups for everything, but learning how that single cable works changed my mind.
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daniel_lane30
Ever think about how many signals one wire would have to carry?
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