full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sajan Saini: The hidden network that makes the internet possible

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Compared to electricity or rdaio, fiber optic signals barely dgdreae over great distances— a little pwoer does sattecr away, and fibers can’t bend too sharply, otherwise the light leaks out. Today, a single optical fbeir crraeis many wavelengths of light, each a different channel of data. And a fiber optic cable contains hedrudns of these fiber strands. Over a million kioeemrtls of cable crisscross our ocean floors to link the continents— that’s enough to wind around the Equator nearly thirty times.

With fiber optics, distance hardly limits data, which has allowed the internet to evolve into a plaernaty computer. ilcensiagnry, our mobile work and play rely on legions of overworked cptmueor servers, warehoused in gigantic data cretens flung across the world. This is called cloud computing, and it leads to two big problems: heat waste and bandwidth demand. The vast majority of internet tfirfac shuttles around inside data centers, where thousands of servers are connected by traditional electrical cables. Half of their running power is wasted as heat. Meanwhile, werleiss bandwidth demand steadily marches on, and the gigahertz signals used in our milboe devices are reaching their data delivery limits.

Open Cloze


Compared to electricity or _____, fiber optic signals barely _______ over great distances— a little _____ does _______ away, and fibers can’t bend too sharply, otherwise the light leaks out. Today, a single optical _____ _______ many wavelengths of light, each a different channel of data. And a fiber optic cable contains ________ of these fiber strands. Over a million __________ of cable crisscross our ocean floors to link the continents— that’s enough to wind around the Equator nearly thirty times.

With fiber optics, distance hardly limits data, which has allowed the internet to evolve into a _________ computer. ____________, our mobile work and play rely on legions of overworked ________ servers, warehoused in gigantic data _______ flung across the world. This is called cloud computing, and it leads to two big problems: heat waste and bandwidth demand. The vast majority of internet _______ shuttles around inside data centers, where thousands of servers are connected by traditional electrical cables. Half of their running power is wasted as heat. Meanwhile, ________ bandwidth demand steadily marches on, and the gigahertz signals used in our ______ devices are reaching their data delivery limits.

Solution


  1. traffic
  2. carries
  3. computer
  4. planetary
  5. mobile
  6. power
  7. wireless
  8. kilometers
  9. scatter
  10. fiber
  11. centers
  12. radio
  13. hundreds
  14. degrade
  15. increasingly

Original Text


Compared to electricity or radio, fiber optic signals barely degrade over great distances— a little power does scatter away, and fibers can’t bend too sharply, otherwise the light leaks out. Today, a single optical fiber carries many wavelengths of light, each a different channel of data. And a fiber optic cable contains hundreds of these fiber strands. Over a million kilometers of cable crisscross our ocean floors to link the continents— that’s enough to wind around the Equator nearly thirty times.

With fiber optics, distance hardly limits data, which has allowed the internet to evolve into a planetary computer. Increasingly, our mobile work and play rely on legions of overworked computer servers, warehoused in gigantic data centers flung across the world. This is called cloud computing, and it leads to two big problems: heat waste and bandwidth demand. The vast majority of internet traffic shuttles around inside data centers, where thousands of servers are connected by traditional electrical cables. Half of their running power is wasted as heat. Meanwhile, wireless bandwidth demand steadily marches on, and the gigahertz signals used in our mobile devices are reaching their data delivery limits.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
fiber optic 4
data centers 2
bandwidth demand 2
electrical cables 2
wireless bandwidth 2
gigahertz signals 2
silicon wires 2
photonic chips 2


Important Words


  1. allowed
  2. bandwidth
  3. barely
  4. bend
  5. big
  6. cable
  7. cables
  8. called
  9. carries
  10. centers
  11. channel
  12. cloud
  13. compared
  14. computer
  15. computing
  16. connected
  17. crisscross
  18. data
  19. degrade
  20. delivery
  21. demand
  22. devices
  23. distance
  24. electrical
  25. electricity
  26. equator
  27. evolve
  28. fiber
  29. fibers
  30. floors
  31. flung
  32. gigahertz
  33. gigantic
  34. great
  35. heat
  36. hundreds
  37. increasingly
  38. internet
  39. kilometers
  40. leads
  41. leaks
  42. legions
  43. light
  44. limits
  45. link
  46. majority
  47. marches
  48. million
  49. mobile
  50. ocean
  51. optic
  52. optical
  53. optics
  54. overworked
  55. planetary
  56. play
  57. power
  58. radio
  59. reaching
  60. rely
  61. running
  62. scatter
  63. servers
  64. sharply
  65. shuttles
  66. signals
  67. single
  68. steadily
  69. strands
  70. thousands
  71. times
  72. today
  73. traditional
  74. traffic
  75. vast
  76. warehoused
  77. waste
  78. wasted
  79. wavelengths
  80. wind
  81. wireless
  82. work
  83. world