Some fiber-optic cables are faster than others, because they’re full of air. Hollow-core fibers have a large central cutout and/or a close hexagonal packing of smaller glass tubes. The latter are technically a “photonic crystal.”
Comment on NASA Ping
zaphod@sopuli.xyz 1 month agoRadio waves always propagate at the speed of light, it’s just that the effective speed of light in copper and glass fibre is lower than that in air/vacuum.
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
psud@aussie.zone 5 weeks ago
Speed of light in fiberoptic cable is slower than c for a different reason. The light is in something close to vacuum, signals travel slower than c because the light doesn’t follow a straight path, it zig zags bouncing off the walls.
A radio wave or laser in reasonable vacuum (in orbit for example) will be lower latency than a signal on a fiber link the same length
I’m expecting lower ping via starlink than fiber once starlink has laser links between satellites