Impact
The impact of AC's victory was greater than anybody could have foreseen. For example, Westinghouse built massive dynamos
at Niagara Falls that used AC to transmit power to cities including Detroit, 240 miles away, transforming it into an automotive
giant, and New York, almost 450 miles away. With DC, the very idea would be ludicrous.
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(Video Interview with Associate Professor Peter Hoekje)
What if DC had won?
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Is AC or DC used more today?
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Drawbacks
Electricity brought loss, too. Central AC power stations, beneficial to society in the 19th and early 20th centuries, can cripple over a quarter of the United States if they fail today. "A surge of electricity to western New York and Canada touched off a series of power failures and enforced blackouts yesterday that left parts of at least eight states in the Northeast and the Midwest without electricity" (Barron). A blackout of this magnitude would not have been possible with DC, nor would five other major blackouts between 1965 and 2003. Because potential for damage is high, centralized power stations are also terrorist targets. DC would be preferable because terrorists could only incapacitate a portion of a city in one attack.
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Conclusion
Our world, full of technology and innovation, would not be possible without AC's long-range capabilities. AC's victory in the AC-DC debate sparked a transition into the Technological Age, and created more time, energy, and possibility for the human race. Great are the powers of electricity.