Earlier quoted context omitted.
To build on this analogy, tug of war fits a bit better. Nothing dramatic happens if one person let go, but if half of one team just let loose at the same time without communication, bad things happen.
I think an even better example is what happened to the Tacoma Bridge. You have an oscillating frequency and phase that needs to be precisely tuned in order for everything to work well. If something is out of sync wrong, you can end up with higher peaks, lower valleys, or flatter locations which can ultimately cause catastrophic failure. In the Tacoma example, the input frequency continued to add onto the bridges moti…
Reminded me of this fun video of a guy spinning up a water turbine generator and getting it synchronized with to the grid the old-style needle phase meter, then connecting it successfully: