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"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?\nWhen 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 \u2014 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.\n\"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.\"\nThey labeled the test SPUDS: Synthetic Personnel Using Dielectric Substitution. \nAccording to CNN, Boeing has donated the ersatz passengers to a food bank.\n\nVia @steveashleyplusImages courtesy of Boeing, Flickr, sethoscope"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/12/20/boeing-potatoes-in-flight-wifi/>