How We Trapped Light and Built the Internet

Why making glass fibers to send signals was almost impossible. Sponsored by Saily - 🌎 Get an exclusive 15% discount on Saily data plans! Download Saily app go to https://saily.com/veritasium Use code veritasium at checkout ⛵

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0:00 What are fiber optics?
2:02 Why Copper Phone Lines Had Limited Capacity
5:13 Trying To Go From Copper Communication To Glass
8:15 Why is glass so ‘lossy’?
11:29 Scattering and Absorption
16:00 How can you remove impurities in glass?
19:00 How They Make Fiber Optic Glass
26:47 The Technology that Made the Internet Possible

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Special thanks to the experts and collaborators who made this video possible:
Dr. Donald Keck
Prof. Vincent Chan
Sir David Payne
Dr. Nikola Alic
Jim Hayes
Jeff Hecht, whose book City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics was an invaluable resource for this video (explore his work at https://www.jeffhecht.com).
Manuel (https://www.youtube.com/@DiffractionLimited)
Trulala CANDY Chef (https://www.youtube.com/@TrulalaCANDYChef)
Additional thanks to:
ROSENDAHL NEXTROM for providing animations and fiber manufacturing 3D assets.
Bay Area Glass Institute for hosting our team.
Prysmian for giving us a guided tour of their fiber manufacturing plant, and our two on screen experts:
Sujeet Rao, Operational Excellence Fiber Director and Jon Fitz, Technical Sales Support Sr. Manager.

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References: https://ve42.co/FiberRefs

Note: The skin effect explanation is simplified. The full analysis involves the eddy currents' own magnetic fields, which induce further currents, and so on. Here’s an article on the same: https://ve42.co/SkinEffectDerivation

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Credits
Writers: Sulli Yost, Henry van Dyck
Producer and Director: Sulli Yost
Presenter: Henry van Dyck
Editors: George Reynolds, Trenton Oliver and Axel Oliver
Assistant Editor: James Stuart
Illustrators: Jakub Misiek, Raphael Aubry, Thomas Brizard and Emma Wright
Animators: Aleksandrs Loginovs, Alex Drakoulis, Andrew Neet, Andrew Wernette, Domonkos Józsa, Emma Wright, Fabio Albertelli, Rokas Viksraitis and Sulli Yost
Researchers: Aakash Singh Bagga, Sophia Rose, Callum Cuttle and Gabe Strong
Camera Operators: Sulli Yost, Aaron Zhizhin, Emilia Gyles and Jesse Chandler
Thumbnail Designers: Abdallah Rabah, Daniel Ellacott
Production Team: Anna Milkovic, Glen Griffiths, Jess Bishop-Laggett, Matthew Cavanagh
Executive Producers: Derek Muller, Emilia Gyles and Henry van Dyck