Basics of Fiber Optics Light and Cable

Fiber optics are strands of pure glass that are as thin as human hair. These strands of glass carry digital information over long distances and are used in all sorts of activities, most commonly telephone calls and cable TV transmissions. Fiber optics also transmit light signals through the strand. This light travels through the core of the fiber optic bundle with a principle called “total internal reflection.” This brief article will discuss total internal reflection and hopefully shed some illumination on the concept of fiber optics light.

The Basics Of Total Internal Reflection

Total internal reflection is known as an “optical phenomenon.” It occurs when light is bent (or refracted) at a boundary enough to send it backwards, which ends up reflecting all of the light, hence the name. Optical fibers operate based entirely on this principle, as do mirages. A mirage is an optical phenomenon in which light refracts or bends to such a great degree that a displaced image is visible in the distance. A mirage is comparable to a mirror, as is the general effect of total internal reflection.

Fiber Optics Light Fundamental Principles

Fiber optics, simply, is a means for transporting information from one point to another utilizing the form of light. Fiber optics is not electrical in nature, but rather functions using fiber optics light energy signals that operate within a cable system, transporting pieces of information from one end of the cable system to the other. In short, the light is the vehicle through which the information flows in the cable system.

A Brief History of Fiber Optics

Fiber optics was likely first discovered in a primitive form in 1870 by a man named John Tyndall, who used a jet of water to demonstrate that light energy flowed using a specific path. He effectively set up a bucket and filled it with water, observing that once a hole was presented in the bucket the light energy flowed with the water out of the hole and was “transmitted” into the second bucket, thus demonstrating, to Tyndall, the guided energy principle of light.
Fiber optics light, therefore, began to develop from those early principles. Inventors and scientists like William Wheeling and Alexander Graham Bell played with the notion of guided light and helped bring the principles of fiber optics light to the forefront where they are utilized in many forms of technology today to carry and contain pieces of information.