this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2026
456 points (98.9% liked)

Science Memes

18524 readers
1695 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] Tinidril@midwest.social 10 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

That's not correct. What you need for long distance is high voltage, and it's easier/cheaper to step up/down AC voltage than DC. If conversion costs were eliminated, DC is actually more efficient.

If you get to even longer distances of over 300+ miles, DC's efficiency becomes worth the additional cost of conversion. There are many HVDC interregional connections.

[โ€“] lengau@midwest.social 2 points 11 hours ago

At distances closer to a quarter wavelength you can also have some pretty gnarly reactions if a line goes down. That's why stuff like the Kahora Bassa power plant uses HVDC for transmission.