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Reason: None provided.

Information travels at the speed of light in a vacuum, the same as it does in a fibre optic cable.

This is false.

There is a physics formula for calculating the speed of light in different mediums:

Speed of light in the medium = Speed of light in a vacuum/Refractive index of the medium

The refractive index of silica glass (what most fiber optics are made of) is 1.5, and the speed of light in a vacuum is 3x10^8 m/s, therefore

Speed of light in silica = 3x10^8/1.5 = 2x10^8

So you can see that information in fiber optic cables will travel at 2x10^8 m/s vs. 3x10^8 m/s in a vacuum, or about 33% slower.

This also does not take into account the fact that there is also a net slow-down effect because the light is bouncing off the sides of the cable as it travels.

1 year ago
2 score
Reason: Original

Information travels at the speed of light in a vacuum, the same as it does in a fibre optic cable.

This is false.

There is a physics formula for calculating the speed of light in different mediums:

Speed of light in the medium = Speed of light in a vacuum/Refractive index of the medium

The refractive index of silica glass (what most fiber optics are made of) is 1.5, and the speed of light in a vacuum is 3x10^8 m/s, therefore

Speed of light in silica = 3x10^8/1.5 = 2x10^8

So you can see that information in fiber optic cables will travel at 2x10^8 m/s vs. 3x10^8 m/s in a vacuum, or about 33% slower.

This also does not take into account the fact that fiber optic cables are generally not perfectly straight, and there is also a net slow-down effect because the light is bouncing off the sides of the cable as it travels.

1 year ago
1 score