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Margin of Safety
1 min readJan 4, 2020
In systems with a critical measure at which the behaviour of the system changes dramatically, Margin of Safety provides extra cushion to such measure.
- Designing bridges with a safety factor that can comfortably handle the maximum volume of traffic, high winds etc.;
- Building a power grid that can safely handle the peak load;
- Using preventative maintenance — replacing/servicing components within their predicted lifespan — to ensure that aircraft do not fail in flight, using the meantime-between-failure (MTBF) benchmark;
- Using data back-up systems.
“At a certain scale, a system reaches a critical mass or limit where the behavior of the system may change dramatically [an example would be a spring that, if stretched too far, merely deforms rather than returning to its original position].
Small interactions over time slowly accumulate into a critical state — where the degree of instability increases. A small event may then trigger a dramatic change like an earthquake. A web of cracks over time may increase vibrations that cause an accident. The underlying process may be simple and easy to understand but still remain unpredictable.”
-Seeking Wisdom by Peter Bevelin
