How fiber optic cable works

- Fiber optics are thin strands of glass in thick underground cables that carry data via the reflection of light beams.

- Light travels down a fiber-optic cable by bouncing repeatedly off the walls.

- Each tiny photon (particle of light) bounces down the pipe like a bobsleigh going down an  ice run.

- Light hits glass at a really shallow angle (less than 42 degrees), it reflects back in again as though the glass were really a mirror.

- The cladding's job is to keep the light signals inside the core.