Why making glass fibers to send signals was almost impossible. Sponsored by Saily - 🌎 Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans! Download Saily app go to https://saily.com/veritasium Use code veritasium at checkout ⛵ If you’re looking for a molecular modelling kit, try Snatoms, a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically - https://ve42.co/SnatomsV For the latest science news, and for an exclusive bonus Q&A with Sulli, the director of this video, sign up to the Veritasium newsletter - https://ve42.co/VeMail_FO For early access to work in progress videos join our patreon https://ve42.co/VePatreon ▀▀▀ 0:00 What are fiber optics? 2:02 Why Copper Phone Lines Had Limited Capacity 5:13 Trying To Go From Copper Communication To Glass 8:15 Why is glass so ‘lossy’? 11:29 Scattering and Absorption 16:00 How can you remove impurities in glass? 19:00 How They Make Fiber Optic Glass 26:47 The Technology that Made the Internet Possible ▀▀▀ Special thanks to the experts and collaborators who made this video possible: Dr. Donald Keck Prof. Vincent Chan Sir David Payne Dr. Nikola Alic Jim Hayes Jeff Hecht, whose book City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics was an invaluable resource for this video (explore his work at https://www.jeffhecht.com). Diffraction Limited, who made the fiber kits we used and some additional simulations that were critical to our understanding (https://www.youtube.com/@DiffractionLimited) Trulala CANDY Chef (https://www.youtube.com/@TrulalaCANDYChef) Additional thanks to: ROSENDAHL NEXTROM for providing animations and fiber manufacturing 3D assets: (https://rosendahlnextrom.com/fiber/) Bay Area Glass Institute for hosting our team. (https://bagi.org/) Prysmian for giving us a guided tour of their fiber manufacturing plant, and our two on screen experts: Sujeet Rao, Operational Excellence Fiber Director and Jon Fitz, Technical Sales Support Sr. Manager. ▀▀▀ References: https://ve42.co/FiberRefs Note: The skin effect explanation is simplified. The full analysis involves the eddy currents' own magnetic fields, which induce further currents, and so on. Here’s an article on the same: https://ve42.co/SkinEffectDerivation ▀▀▀ Special thanks to our Patreon supporters: Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Alex Porter, Alexander Tamas, André Powell, Anton Ragin, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Blake Byers, Bruce, Bryan Ackermann, Chris Brewer, Data Don, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, David Tseng, EJ Alexandra, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, gpoly, Hayden Christensen, Hong Thai Le, Ibby Hadeed, Jeromy Johnson, Juan Benet, Kelcey Steele, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Mark Heising, Meekay, meg noah, Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Parsee Health, Patreon mp22, Paul Peijzel, Robson, Sam Lutfi, Shalva Bukia, Sinan Taifour, Steven, Sweet_Nemo, Tair Aurmont, Tj Steyn, Ubiquity Ventures, Vahe Andonians, wolfee ▀▀▀ Credits Writers: Sulli Yost, Henry van Dyck Producer and Director: Sulli Yost Presenter: Henry van Dyck Editors: George Reynolds, Trenton Oliver and Axel Oliver Assistant Editor: James Stuart Illustrators: Jakub Misiek, Raphael Aubry, Thomas Brizard and Emma Wright Animators: Aleksandrs Loginovs, Alex Drakoulis, Andrew Neet, Andrew Wernette, Domonkos Józsa, Emma Wright, Fabio Albertelli, Rokas Viksraitis and Sulli Yost Researchers: Aakash Singh Bagga, Sophia Rose, Callum Cuttle and Gabe Strong Camera Operators: Sulli Yost, Aaron Zhizhin, Emilia Gyles and Jesse Chandler Thumbnail Designers: Abdallah Rabah, Daniel Ellacott Production Team: Anna Milkovic, Glen Griffiths, Jess Bishop-Laggett, Matthew Cavanagh Executive Producers: Derek Muller, Emilia Gyles and Henry van Dyck
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I would love to see a video about submarine cables and fiber amplifiers!!!! thx
It's funny how we get frustrated when our internet takes a few seconds to load, without realizing that behind that connection are scientists who spent years solving a problem many believed was impossible.
32:48 yes please
Kao was already in Alzheimer’s condition when he received the Nobel prize, I remembered in an interview after the prize was announced, he could barely recall what optical fibre is. May he rest in peace and forever remembered
32:49 Ofcourse we want a video on the amplifiers. Who wouldn't want more of veritasium?
I worked in telecom for 43 years, I retired a little over a year ago. I remember going from analog to digital electrical cables, and then to digital fibre transmission. The bandwidth of fibre has yet to hit its limit. The limit is actually the switching speed of the electronics on either end of the fibre. They now use lasers of different "colours" or Lamdas, with prisms to separate the multiple beams that travel down a single fibre. The technology is amazing.
I love seeing all the comments about the video contents 3 minutes after it was posted meaning they physically couldn't have watched it all yet.
Your whole documentary on who created the blue LED, how the blue LED was created, and why it was impossible to create is something that fascinates me the most. After watching that video, I thought that nothing is impossible. It just needs effort, determination, and pure love and passion for discovery, and it finally happens before our eyes.
We are proud to have helped to tell this incredible story! Thank you Veritasium, and we are also humbled to see so many curious and happy comments! And we agree - let’s now take a look under the sea with submarine cables and amplifiers! There’s so much hidden that makes our world come to life!
An old style Veritasium video, exactly what I needed!! Grokmaxus will be big today
Thats one of the coolest things I've ever seen in the intro😂 lucky that Grokmaxus is still running imo
The video thumbnail and title are in superposition!
33:00 please do
"We turned light into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into a world that never sleeps"
How can Veritasium forget Narinder Singh Kapany who in Imperial London College before 1960s proved that light could be passed through glass fibers. He literally coined the term "Fiber Optics"
Legally can’t fire a crossbow indoors?!? What a strange world.
Kao was an electrical engineer. No wonder he could solve the problems others couldn't.
It's crazy how it went from a theoretical/unsolvable problem, to a materials/plausible one, and finally into "just" a manufacturing/practical problem, from no one being interested to everyone racing to get there.
My Dad worked for Raytheon as an engineer and in 1980 I went to visit him at work. They had one of the large fibre optic cables they were going to put in the ocean in the middle of the huge warehouse space. The end was open and all the fibres were splayed out, it was HUGE and then he asked them to turn off the lights. Then they turned on the cable....it was incredible. As an 11 year old science buff...wow....then we went to see Empire Strikes Back....what a time to be alive man,.
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