1,500,000 kettles

How the national grid copes with 1,500,000 Britons simultaneously making a cup of tea!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• national
• grid
• tv
• pick
• up
• electricity

[ddrmegamixer]

Another fantastic reason why they should stop making Eastenders and all the other crap soaps.

[TheNatealator]

@newordner And how are you going to program a computer to watch a soap and figure out when it ends?

[F1NGER]

And people think tea is relaxing.

[TomekTQ]

@TheNatealator Actually, I don't think that'd be all that hard. All you'd need to do is recognize the end credits, which is (usually) lots of white text on a black background.

[reuntes]

@TheNatealator The "how will I do this?" part of computer programing is all the fun of programming. "How?" is the ultimate question and solving that question is what keeps us coming back for more. Without the seemingly impossible How question, we wouldn't advance.

[SCman1337]

Natural Gas

[wpelfeta]

@TheNatealator It doesn't need to know when the program ends. It just needs to keep track of the frequency, and if it drops below say 49.0 for a full second, it can automatically adjust and bring a hydroelectric plant online.

[richardjohn89]

@patbean Computers are better at predicting things than one man can be.

[budgiesmugglers]

@TheNatealator That would be the easiest task. You either ask BBC to implement some notification or use image analysis on the video stream.

[richardjohn89]

@TheNatealator It's not like they have schedules or anything, is it!

[patbean]

also you do need to be able to prodict not just react. I have visited one of the pumped storage stations and they are often told by NG to spin the generators in air. (no pumping up or down) just spinning. and this is how they raact so quickly. computers are good at reacting but that would be to late. Also rules for faults, if it keeps going down <49.8 and you have to drop load what and who do you cut off!

and for how long.