by Brian Hayes
Published 24 April 2006
I’ll be giving a talk at Towson University later this week. Details here. If you’re in the Baltimore area, please come by.
First publication: 24 April 2006
Converted to Eleventy framework: 22 April 2025
These 1s and 0s are woven into the upholstery fabric of the seats in an auditorium at Carnegie Mellon University. Does the pattern have any meaning?
The cause of the accident was not a leak or an equipment failure or a design flaw. The pressure didn’t just creep up beyond safe limits while no one was paying attention; the pressure was driven up by the automatic control system meant to keep it in bounds.
Why are they so tall? Why are they no taller? Also, why are they trees (in the graph-theory sense)?
By all appearances, the rogue behavior of the 737 MAX control system was triggered by a malfunction in a single sensor. That’s not supposed to happen in aviation.