How does wifi work?

Moment Of Um

Lemonada Media

Kids & Family, Education For Kids

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 August 2024

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Wifi seems like magic! It lets us send information from routers to computers through the air!. But how does it work? Are there magical computer data tubes? Lasers? Tiny invisible falcons carrying messages incredibly quickly? We asked computer scientist Vikram Iyer to help us find the answer. Got a question about who, what, when, where, or WHY-fi? Send it to us at BrainsOn.org/contact, and we’ll signal you an answer! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the brains behind brains on, this is the Moment of Um.
0:06.3	Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um.
0:08.4	Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm Lady Margaret Chesworth, woman of leisure, science
0:16.4	aficionado and time traveler.
0:19.8	Um.
0:20.4	Um.
0:20.4	Um. I am thrilled that my experimental sojourn into the future has brought me here from 1837.
0:31.9	So much has changed.
0:34.2	I must admit, I had not expected that vehicles like trains and, what do you call them?
0:39.9	Oh, motorcars would travel so very fast.
0:43.3	And fashion has changed a good deal, too.
0:46.0	When I arrived in your time, I was a bit scandalized to see men and women both wearing trousers, and not a top hat in sight.
0:53.6	But I must say, I've grown exceedingly fond of the freedom of wearing trousers instead of giant skirts and oceans of lace.
1:01.0	But the thing that intrigues me the most is wild-fi.
1:06.5	I've seen people transmit messages through the air with only the touch of a button.
1:11.6	And there are no cables, no wires, no visible means of connection at all.
1:17.2	This Wi-Fi lets you see the most darling photographs of kittens at any time.
1:23.3	But how?
1:24.7	What is Wi-Fi?
1:27.3	How does it work? Ruben was curious about this, too.
1:35.8	My name is Vikram Eyre, and I build tiny computers and put cameras on insects, and I'm a
1:46.0	professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington. So how does Wi-Fi work?
	...

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