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 Use code veritasium at checkout ⛵
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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
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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
Diffraction Limited, who made the fiber kits we used and some additional simulations that were critical to our understanding (
Trulala CANDY Chef (
Additional thanks to:
ROSENDAHL NEXTROM for providing animations and fiber manufacturing 3D assets: (
Bay Area Glass Institute for hosting our team. (
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.
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References:
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:
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Special thanks to our Patreon supporters:
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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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We NEED part two! Thank you! This sort of real machining science is the best (way more interesting than theoretical mathematics IN MY OPINION :] )
A video about optical amplification would be great. That tech is so cool. Rather than receive the optical signal, transforming into electrical impulses and then back to light via a laser, the fibre itself acts as the lasing medium and the signal stays optical the whole way. This is such a brilliant and elegant solution.
Science is so amazing ❤
I want to see the next video
Shuji Nakamura, who invented the blue LED and won a Nobel prize for it (and I think Veritasium has covered that) said something very similar about his choice to work on GaN LEDs. Nobody else was working on it, so he felt that at least he wasn't in competition with everyone else.
and yet we still have copper wires
Didn't totally understand but it was very informative and helpful for me.
waiting for amplifier video. thank u
What fucked up place are you in that says it's illegal to fire a crossbow indoors, if it's your private dwelling or business?
1:14 Where is Derek Muller? I am not interested!
Thank to our "Friends" from Roswell .. the Tech was original from Aliens…and through Secret Connections with the Science Peoples/CIA… they brainwashed the Public with the Exploration of own Science/Work. The Secret was big and important and Till today the deep State is controlling the truth.
I work in Mediatech as an engineer and i also have installed an fiber optics amplifier before called EDFA, it contains Eribium, one of the rare metals on earth. So please do a video on it! I would make sure to be the first to watch it 😀
I would like a vidro about amplifiers😄
just here pretending that I understood everything
Yes ti amplifiers and undersea cables
I would like to see a video about submarine cables and fiber amplifiers!! THX
Great video as always! It would be great to see a video on how Narinder Singh Kapany contributed to the field of fiber optics in the 1950s. The term 'fiber optics' was coined by the man!
5:37
want vedio of these type. want to know more about network and its working principals
Copper maxes out at 75 thousand signals.
26:55 point of video starts here
father of fiber optics not even mentioned
It's a shame you didn't include the contributions of John MacChesney at Bell Labs. The development of MCVD made the scalable fabrication of the fibers used in real telecommunications systems feasible…
Definitely want a program about undersea cable and amplifiers!
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interesting video
i watched this from fiber
At roughly 200,000 km/s in glass, a pulse needs about 5 milliseconds to travel 1,000 km one way, before any equipment delay.