full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Benjamin Seibold: What is phantom traffic and why is it ruining your life?
Unscramble the Blue Letters
With a low diesnty of cars on the road, traffic flows smoothly because small disturbances, like individual cars cnnhgaig lenas or siwnlog down at a cvrue, are absorbed by other drivers’ adjustments. But once the number of cars on the road exceeds a critical density, generally when cars are scaepd less than 35 meters apart, the system’s behavior changes dramatically. It begins to display dynamic instability, meaning small disturbances are amplified. Dynamic instability isn’t unique to phantom traffic jams— it’s also responsible for raindrops, sand dunes, cloud prnaetts, and more.
The isilinabtty is a positive feedback loop. Above the critical density, any additional vehicle reduces the number of cars per second passing through a given piont on the road. This in turn means it takes longer for a local pileup to move out of a section of the road, increasing vehicle density even more, which etaelnvuly adds up to stop-and-go traffic.
Open Cloze
With a low _______ of cars on the road, traffic flows smoothly because small disturbances, like individual cars ________ _____ or _______ down at a _____, are absorbed by other drivers’ adjustments. But once the number of cars on the road exceeds a critical density, generally when cars are ______ less than 35 meters apart, the system’s behavior changes dramatically. It begins to display dynamic instability, meaning small disturbances are amplified. Dynamic instability isn’t unique to phantom traffic jams— it’s also responsible for raindrops, sand dunes, cloud ________, and more.
The ___________ is a positive feedback loop. Above the critical density, any additional vehicle reduces the number of cars per second passing through a given _____ on the road. This in turn means it takes longer for a local pileup to move out of a section of the road, increasing vehicle density even more, which __________ adds up to stop-and-go traffic.
Solution
- curve
- patterns
- density
- lanes
- eventually
- point
- instability
- changing
- spaced
- slowing
Original Text
With a low density of cars on the road, traffic flows smoothly because small disturbances, like individual cars changing lanes or slowing down at a curve, are absorbed by other drivers’ adjustments. But once the number of cars on the road exceeds a critical density, generally when cars are spaced less than 35 meters apart, the system’s behavior changes dramatically. It begins to display dynamic instability, meaning small disturbances are amplified. Dynamic instability isn’t unique to phantom traffic jams— it’s also responsible for raindrops, sand dunes, cloud patterns, and more.
The instability is a positive feedback loop. Above the critical density, any additional vehicle reduces the number of cars per second passing through a given point on the road. This in turn means it takes longer for a local pileup to move out of a section of the road, increasing vehicle density even more, which eventually adds up to stop-and-go traffic.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| phantom traffic |
5 |
| traffic jam |
4 |
| brake lights |
2 |
| feedback loop |
2 |
| drivers tend |
2 |
| traffic waves |
2 |
ngrams of length 3
| collocation |
frequency |
| phantom traffic jam |
3 |
Important Words
- absorbed
- additional
- adds
- adjustments
- amplified
- begins
- behavior
- cars
- changing
- cloud
- critical
- curve
- density
- display
- disturbances
- dramatically
- dunes
- dynamic
- eventually
- exceeds
- feedback
- flows
- generally
- increasing
- individual
- instability
- lanes
- local
- longer
- loop
- meaning
- means
- meters
- move
- number
- passing
- patterns
- phantom
- pileup
- point
- positive
- raindrops
- reduces
- responsible
- road
- sand
- section
- slowing
- small
- smoothly
- spaced
- takes
- traffic
- turn
- unique
- vehicle