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What is Fiber Optics?
Step aside metal wires, because here comes fiber optics. Yes, fiber
optics are making waves in the telecommunication and computer
industries. They are challenging the presence and the utility of
metal wires as far as data transfer and reception is concerned. It
is predicted that in the coming years almost everything in the
telecommunication industry will use fiber optics. It will surely
make the use of copper wires obsolete in due time.
But what is fiber optics? Fiber optics is a thin strand of fiber as
thin as your hair, made of glass, which you can see clearly, as the
name optical fibers imply. These strands are bundled and covered
with coating material to make it into a cable. The cables we see in
our telephone and computers are made of fiber optics. Fiber optics
transfers data from one point to the other through light waves,
unlike your metal wires, which transfer data using electric waves.
These light waves pass through the core of the fiber optics, which
by refracting from one focal point to another. Once the light wave
reaches the other endpoint the data is then decoded. Data carried
through a fiber optic can travel over long distances.
What is fiber optics? Imagine the telephone game you played when you
were a kid. You have those two pieces of tin cans or cups where you
put hole at the bottom on each cup or can. You connect them with a
string or a thread. Once this is done you stretch the string to
opposite direction in a straight line and play telephone game. It is
a wonder how the message can travel, but once the string is bent the
message can no longer reach to the other end.
In the case of fiber optics, even if those tiny strands of glasses
are bent, light can still travel through the internal refraction
system. The data that is being relayed can still reach to the
receiving end. The internal refraction system in fiber optics works
in a way that the light travels by bending from one point to the
other somewhat forming a zigzag line inside the fiber.
What is fiber optics? Fiber optics is composed of three layers of
glass material. The core, which is the innermost portion of the
fiber, is where the light passes through. The cladding, which is the
second layer, does not absorb the light in the fiber allowing it to
reflect to the core. The buffer coating is the covering material
made of plastic to prevent the moisture from damaging the fiber.
What is fiber optics? Fiber optics is lighter than metal wires or
cables, and even if it is bent, data transfer is not affected. No
wonder why more and more industries are attracted to the benefit of
fiber optics.
Even the medical world is now using gadgets that are equipped with
fiber optics. Did you see those laparoscopes and endoscopes you see
in hospital laboratories? Those are made of fiber optics.
Fiber optics is continuously making wonders in every human activity.
It has made life easier. So, what is fiber optics? At least now you
know.
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