| Understanding how fiber optics are made and | | | | expensive connectors, but they cannot be used over |
| function for uses in everyday life is an intriguing work | | | | long distances as with the single-mode fiber optics. |
| of art combined with science. Fiber optics has been | | | | Fiber optics have a large variety of uses. Most |
| fabricated from materials that transmit light and are | | | | common and widely used in communication systems, |
| made from a bundle of very thin glass or plastic | | | | fiber optic communication systems have a variety of |
| fibers enclosed in a tube. One end is at a source of | | | | features that make it superior to the systems that |
| light and the other end is a camera lens, used to | | | | use the traditional copper cables. The use of fiber |
| channel light and images around the bends and | | | | optics with these systems use a larger |
| corners. Fiber optics have a highly transparent core | | | | information-carrying capacity where they are not |
| of glass, or plastic encircled by a covering called | | | | hassled with electrical interference and require fewer |
| "cladding". Light is stimulated through a source on one | | | | amplifiers then the copper cable systems. Fiber optic |
| end of the fiber optic and as the light travels through | | | | communication systems are installed in large |
| the tube, the cladding is there to keep it all inside. A | | | | networks of fiber optic bundles all around the world |
| bundle of fiber optics may be bent or twisted | | | | and even under the oceans. Many fiber optic testers |
| without distorting the image, as the cladding is | | | | are available to provide you with the best fiber optic |
| designed to reflect these lighting images from inside | | | | equipment. |
| the surface. This fiber optic light source can carry | | | | In fiber optic communication systems, lasers are used |
| light over mass distances, ranging from a few inches | | | | to transmit messages in numeric code by flashing on |
| to over 100 miles. | | | | and off at high speeds. This code can constitute a |
| There are two kinds of fiber optics. The single-mode | | | | voice or an electronic file containing, text, numbers, |
| fiber optic is used for high speed and long distance | | | | or illustrations, all by using fiber optics. The light from |
| transmissions because they have extremely tiny | | | | many lasers are added together onto a single fiber |
| cores and they accept light only along the axis of the | | | | optic enabling thousands of currents of data to pass |
| fibers. Tiny lasers send light directly into the fiber | | | | through a single fiber optic cable at one time. This |
| optic where there are low-loss connectors used to | | | | data will travel through the fiber optics and into |
| join the fibers within the system without substantially | | | | interpreting devices to convert the messages back |
| degrading the light signal. Then there are multi-mode | | | | into the form of its original signals. Industries also use |
| which have much larger cores and accept light from a | | | | fiber optics to measure temperatures, pressure, |
| variety of angles and can use more types of light | | | | acceleration and voltage, among an assortment of |
| sources. Multi-mode fiber optics also use less | | | | other uses. |