Communication Needs

How do fibre optics bend light?

Public Comments

1. successive optical bending is the basis of optical pulse propagation in a certain fiber optic cable, such bending process is the conseuqnce of refration , i.e.,, difference in refractive indices between in & outside layer of a fiber n*sin(theta) = const. { Snell's Law}
2. Fiber optics works due to total internal reflection. The light waves reflect off of the interior surfaces of the cable, and so just follow the cable.
3. they don't. light is sent down a fibre optic cable and it comes out the other end, the light does bounce off the internal sides, so if you bend the cable the light is also bent. a bit like going through a tunnel, you have to follow the route the tunnel goes
4. Total internal reflection......light travels in straight lines and is reflected off the internal wall of the optic fibre, the internal sides of the fibre are almost like mirrors in this respect and keep reflecting the light inwards and through the tube.
5. all of the above and probably alsol because fibre optic is cool with a cool name and now because they are so cool you can get fast broadband through them which probably does they same as the light and reflect off the internal walls of the cable. it is so fast because no broadband can escape. It's true i tell ya!! :)
6. Optical fibers consist of a core and cladding of different glass where the refractive index of the core is higher than that of the cladding. For large fibers (multimode) the light is contained by total internal reflection. When the light inside the fiber meets the boundary between the core and cladding at a steep enough angle it is reflected. (Google "total internal reflection".) This is the method for most fiber optic illumination systems. For small fibers the light is contained in a different manner. In this case the light (and the fiber) is described as single mode. The mathematics to understand this are quite complex. The light is mathematically described as a wave (rather than rays for multimode). For a small range of wavelengths (colors) a single mode fiber can transmit the light with small losses over great distances. This is the method use for telecommunications. For both modes, bending the fiber by a fairly small curvature (compared to the radius of the fiber) does not result in any significant losses because the conditions that maintain the light inside the fiber do not significantly change.
7. who knows where this would have went if "b" wouldn't have stepped in lol