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A comment on Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with your computer?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with you... by kobalsky on Monday April 03, 2023 @11:28PM (#35434659)
> This might as be considered a law of physics - electromagnetic energy will always travel faster, more... through a conductive medium than through air.

it actually travels faster through air (no vacuum necessary) than through fiber or copper as those transmit information at 2/3rd of the speed of light while air transmits it at 99% [1].

which is why starlink could in theory achieve better latency than a straight run of fiber optic across the world [2].

this of course doesn't mean that it's better in a mouse because of the overhead of processing such a short distance.

[1] https://archive.is/c859M [2] https://youtu.be/QEIUdMiColU?t=238

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with you... by anonym29 on Monday April 03, 2023 @11:40PM (#35434749)
>it actually travels faster through air (no vacuum necessary) than through fiber or copper as those transmit information at 2/3rd of the speed of light while air transmits it at 99% [1].

Right up until you account for interference.

>which is why starlink could in theory achieve better latency than a straight run of fiber optic across the world [2].

Emphasis on "in theory". Back here in reality, Starlink's maximum speeds are measured in hundreds of megabits per second, whereas fiber optic cables are already stretching into hundreds of gigabits per second, literally several orders of magnitude more bandwidth (plus a couple of orders of magnitude less latency, for good measure), due to the inherent superiority of wired over wireless in avoiding interference.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with you... by muti on Tuesday April 04, 2023 @12:15AM (#35434970)
In practice, microwave networks are used over long distances precisely because they are lower latency than fibre.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/priva...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: What lesser-known accessories do you use with you... by kobalsky on Tuesday April 04, 2023 @12:17AM (#35434985)
> Right up until you account for interference.

could you provide more info? the source I gave you has a real-world example of a wireless link used over fiber to achieve better latency.

[ Parent | on HN ]