having weird bandwidth math issue

[zimu]

i'm doing some pre-term reading for a class, and it has some "self-quiz" questions (no answer key.)

there's this one question that is soooooo basic yet i just can't wrap my head around it.

it goes as follows:

Bits are transmitted at 100Mbps on a link with a propagation speed of 2 x 10^8 m/s. What is the distance between one bit and the next?

answer is in meters.

I keep coming to the answer of 2meters, but that just seems ridiculously large, any of you guys have any suggestions??

 

[KLin]

I come up with half a meter.

EDIT: or 2, but I guess it depends on how you divide the 2 numbers 😉

 

[dighn]

speed is m/s, distance is m/bit, so bps = speed/distance. distance = 2

 

[zimu]

yeah see, 2 is the easy answer. but i just can't wrap my head around it. i mean my desktop pc has like 3 meters of cable running from it to the router, that means at any given time it will only have like 1 bit on it??? that seems like sooooooo little!!

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: zimu
yeah see, 2 is the easy answer. but i just can't wrap my head around it. i mean my desktop pc has like 3 meters of cable running from it to the router, that means at any given time it will only have like 1 bit on it??? that seems like sooooooo little!!

that's because it's soooo fast. every second 2x10^8 meters of waves move through it

 

[KLin]

Originally posted by: dighn

Originally posted by: zimu
yeah see, 2 is the easy answer. but i just can't wrap my head around it. i mean my desktop pc has like 3 meters of cable running from it to the router, that means at any given time it will only have like 1 bit on it??? that seems like sooooooo little!!

that's because it's soooo fast. every second 2x10^8 meters of waves move through it

Electrons move pretty damn fast 😛

 

[dighn]

Originally posted by: KLin

Originally posted by: dighn

Originally posted by: zimu
yeah see, 2 is the easy answer. but i just can't wrap my head around it. i mean my desktop pc has like 3 meters of cable running from it to the router, that means at any given time it will only have like 1 bit on it??? that seems like sooooooo little!!

that's because it's soooo fast. every second 2x10^8 meters of waves move through it

Electrons move pretty damn fast 😛

electrons don't move that fast 😉 it's the disturbance that does