Fiber optics are a type of technology that allows data to be transmitted over long distances.
Fiber optics are one of the most important pieces of technology in the world today. Without them, there would be no internet, and no cell phones. They are made up of long strands of glass or plastic that carry data through pulses of light. The pulses can travel at extremely high speeds, and can carry more data than any other type of cable.
Fiber optics were invented in 1880 by Alexander Graham Bell, but it wasn’t until much later that they became widespread.
What is a fiber optic?
A fiber optic is a strand of optical fiber that carries light.
How do they work?
Optical fibers work by transmitting light through them. Light travels faster than electricity, which means that signals can be sent faster using fiber optics than they can with wires. Fiber optic cables also use less energy because they transmit data using pulses of light rather than electricity.
How fast do they go?
The fastest fiber optic network in the world is currently the Hyperoptic network in London, which offers download speeds up to 1 Gbit/s and upload speeds up to 500 Mbit/s.
In America, Google Fiber offers internet access at speeds up to 1 Gbit/s for both downloads and uploads.
At the moment there is no way to send information through a single strand faster than this speed. However, scientists are working on new ways to send information even faster using quantum physics.
Currently it takes around 100 microseconds (1 millisecond) for a signal traveling at 1 Gbit/s to travel just one mile (1.6 km). This might not seem like much time but it adds up when you consider how far apart different cities are from each other.
For example if you live on one side of New York City from where you work then your internet connection will probably run at 100 Mbit/s or slower (a megabit per second is 1000 times slower than gigabit). At 100 Mbit/s it would take 0.1 seconds for your request for a webpage to reach its destination (assuming there was nothing slowing down your connection along the way). At 1 Gbit/s it would take 0.001 seconds or less! That’s 1000 times faster!
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