How do you ensure an even distribution of Wi-Fi throughout an airplane's cabin as that cabin moves through the air at 35,000 feet and 500 mph?
When engineers at Boeing attempted to test different Wi-Fi system designs, they needed to either stock the plane full of warm human bodies or find something else to use in their place. The answer? Potatoes -- 20,000 pounds of them. In a press release, the company called the spuds, quote, "ideal stand-ins for passengers," whose presence shapes the way Wi-Fi pings around the plane's cabin.
"The vegetables' interactions with radio-wave signals mimic those of the human body," a video from Boeing explains. The spuds were, quote, "ideal stand-ins for passengers."
They labeled the test SPUDS: Synthetic Personnel Using Dielectric Substitution.
According to CNN, Boeing has donated the ersatz passengers to a food bank.
Via @steveashleyplus