[12414] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: ATM (was Re: too many routes)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rob Barron)
Mon Sep 15 16:16:17 1997
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 15:04:52 -0500
From: Rob Barron <rbarron@acrux.net>
Reply-To: rbarron@acrux.net
To: Greg Shepherd <gshepher@sps.lane.edu>
CC: Adrian Bool <aid@u-net.net>, "Susan R. Harris" <srh@merit.edu>,
nanog@merit.edu
Greg Shepherd wrote:
> >
> >Electo-Magnetic Radiation. Electrons don't count as EMR do they though,
> >(hell they have a mass!) so data in the form we transmit it down
> >copper won't move at this speed will it?
>
> True, electrons have mass, but we are not 'transmitting' electrons. We are
> oscilating the electrons in the media. This oscilation creats EM energy
> which propogates down the media, in the form of photos, and will propogate
> at some percentage of c depending upon the media.
A good way to visualize this is to imagine a long pipe with an inside
diameter just large enough to hold a ping pong ball. Imagine that the
pipe is completely full of balls from one end to the other - put a ball
in one end and a ball falls out the other end. It happens very rapidly
(approx. 75% of the speed of light) even though the exact ball you put
in didn't travel the entire distance. The balls represent electrons,
BTW.
-rob
