Thread: Speed of data traveling in relation to speed of light

If you have a facebook chat with someone from australia and you live in the netherlands that's arround 4000 Km from eachtoghter it's takes a second to send a message to australia. If you take the speed of light that's 300 Km/s and you know that nothing can faster than light then should a message from the netherlands to australia take 13.3 seconds how is this possible. Is there a different if you talk about data travelling ? Or is the speed of light higher then 300 Km/s

Regards,

Polarbear1981

The speed of light is 300,000 km/s not 300 km/s.

Also, Australia is 16,000 kilometres from the Netherlands, not 4,000. You might want to ask why does it take so long for one's voice to travel that distance. Think on it.

The speed of light C is the speed of light in a vacuum.
It changes a bit when it has to travel trhough materials.

Originally Posted by John Galt

Also, Australia is 16,000 kilometres from the Netherlands, not 4,000. You might want to ask why does it take so long for one's voice to travel that distance. Think on it.

16,000 miles? Are they an opera singer, or an angry parent?

It's not a silly question; and the answers are just a little complicated. The circumference of Earth and the travel time of your messages are only part of the issue.. I invite you to test what I am talking of.. Watching a 'Live' television feed from a studio to a correspondent half way around the world seem to have a six second delay.. Seems like a eternity when you watch it. Now it must be pointed out that from my home in New Zealand I get to see this issue often. I said complicated because of the steps that signal goes through.. This typed script will at the instant I hit the 'enter' key be submitted to the system.. Some considerable seconds later you may see it appear. Dependent upon where you are in relation to me.. Your messages from the Netherlands may first need to travel by wire as a digital coded msg to a call center ( exchange ). and then uploaded to a cable connection and or a optic cable.. Then at a prescribed address a server will sort the destination server and your msg is now in the cloud.. We only get to see it when our device is connected and invites updated data.. 'ZAP' and there it is.. As the encoded data is again converted to a language you can read.. According to the time frame I am living in it would be some seconds and I guess about 10. I have however complicated this by my location today.. I am on a ship at port in 'The Samoan Islands." This msg has just to reach you traveled by ship to shore phone link and then to New Zealand and only then connected to this Internet.. Posted at 4.43 pm -------?

Originally Posted by astromark

It's not a silly question; and the answers are just a little complicated. The circumference of Earth and the travel time of your messages are only part of the issue.. I invite you to test what I am talking of.. Watching a 'Live' television feed from a studio to a correspondent half way around the world seem to have a six second delay.. Seems like a eternity when you watch it. Now it must be pointed out that from my home in New Zealand I get to see this issue often. I said complicated because of the steps that signal goes through.. This typed script will at the instant I hit the 'enter' key be submitted to the system.. Some considerable seconds later you may see it appear. Dependent upon where you are in relation to me.. Your messages from the Netherlands may first need to travel by wire as a digital coded msg to a call center ( exchange ). and then uploaded to a cable connection and or a optic cable.. Then at a prescribed address a server will sort the destination server and your msg is now in the cloud.. We only get to see it when our device is connected and invites updated data.. 'ZAP' and there it is.. As the encoded data is again converted to a language you can read.. According to the time frame I am living in it would be some seconds and I guess about 10. I have however complicated this by my location today.. I am on a ship at port in 'The Samoan Islands." This msg has just to reach you traveled by ship to shore phone link and then to New Zealand and only then connected to this Internet.. Posted at 4.43 pm -------?

There are many sources of delay. One is artificial -- "live" broadcasts are routinely put through a delay of a few seconds, to allow for bleeping out of naughty utterances, or the obscuring of naughty bits.

Other sources of delay include the often-considerable signal processing that takes place between transmitter and receiver. That electronic delay can well exceed the time-of-flight delay.

Originally Posted by tk421

Originally Posted by astromark

It's not a silly question; and the answers are just a little complicated. The circumference of Earth and the travel time of your messages are only part of the issue.. I invite you to test what I am talking of.. Watching a 'Live' television feed from a studio to a correspondent half way around the world seem to have a six second delay.. Seems like a eternity when you watch it. Now it must be pointed out that from my home in New Zealand I get to see this issue often. I said complicated because of the steps that signal goes through.. This typed script will at the instant I hit the 'enter' key be submitted to the system.. Some considerable seconds later you may see it appear. Dependent upon where you are in relation to me.. Your messages from the Netherlands may first need to travel by wire as a digital coded msg to a call center ( exchange ). and then uploaded to a cable connection and or a optic cable.. Then at a prescribed address a server will sort the destination server and your msg is now in the cloud.. We only get to see it when our device is connected and invites updated data.. 'ZAP' and there it is.. As the encoded data is again converted to a language you can read.. According to the time frame I am living in it would be some seconds and I guess about 10. I have however complicated this by my location today.. I am on a ship at port in 'The Samoan Islands." This msg has just to reach you traveled by ship to shore phone link and then to New Zealand and only then connected to this Internet.. Posted at 4.43 pm -------?

There are many sources of delay. One is artificial -- "live" broadcasts are routinely put through a delay of a few seconds, to allow for bleeping out of naughty utterances, or the obscuring of naughty bits.

Other sources of delay include the often-considerable signal processing that takes place between transmitter and receiver. That electronic delay can well exceed the time-of-flight delay.

~ Is that not what I said ? or is it not. Is that not so... and Yes. At light speed even the Moon is just 1.24 seconds away.. Yes the MSG process time is the issue.

Its magic man. It was invented by gamers to cut down on lag time in online first person shooters.