The "Hole in the Bucket" Principle

The "Hole in the Bucket" Principle

The "hole in the bucket" principle refers to a leaky bucket — all holes must be repaired before the bucket stops leaking. Similar to the bucket, a network node may have more than one EMC problem. For example, a design may have both inductive and capacitive coupling to a noise source. The engineer tasked with producing a working design should be aware that multiple fixes may have to be applied simultaneously to eliminate the problem(s), and that the fix may be more than the sum of its parts; two fixes that show no effect when tried separately may cure the problem when applied together. The best strategy is often to produce a functioning unit by any means possible, and then begin a process of subtraction to identify the minimum set of changes required