Why Perfect Railroads Don't Work — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00He saw gaps into a railroad every 39 ft.
2. 0:03You see, two companies are racing to
3. 0:05build a railroad along a canyon so deep
4. 0:07you can't see the bottom. And whoever
5. 0:09finishes first gets the whole country's
6. 0:11business. He's the youngest engineer on
7. 0:13the job, and when his boss sees a
8. 0:14finger-wide gap between every single
9. 0:16rail, his face goes purple. You're
10. 0:18wrecking my railroad. But he won't close
11. 0:20a single one. The other company lays
12. 0:22their rails end to end, perfectly
13. 0:24smooth, and finishes first. Their trains
14. 0:26glide across the canyon without a sound
15. 0:28while his go clicketity clack over every
16. 0:30[music] gap. The newspapers start
17. 0:32calling it the clicketity clack line and
18. 0:34everyone switches to the quiet trains.
19. 0:36Then summer comes and something weird
20. 0:38happens. His gaps start shrinking. In
21. 0:40May, you can fit a coin in them. By
22. 0:42July, barely a sheet of paper and his
23. 0:44boss is thrilled. See, even your gaps
24. 0:47know you were wrong. Meanwhile, on the
25. 0:48perfect [music] railroad, the rails have
26. 0:50started groaning in the afternoon sun,
27. 0:52pushing against each other like they
28. 0:53want to get out. On the hottest day
29. 0:55anyone can remember, his gaps finally
30. 0:57close. Rail touching [music] rail. And
31. 0:59halfway across the canyon, the perfect
32. 1:01railroad kicks sideways like a snake,
33. 1:03right as a train rolls onto