Eli5: what does the turntable in a Therac-25 unit do, and why did kill people by being in the wrong position?

Question

I just watched Kyle Hill’s Half-Life Histories video about the Therac-25, but while he explains the software error with the turntable, he never explained why it was bad.

In: 0

Answer 1

Plainly difficult explains it well in his video, but in short the software thought the machine was emitting less dangerous radiation than it actually was. The radiation exposure was far in excess of what is safe for a person and the effects were fatal.