According to Dr. Vogel, an astrobiologist and former employee at NASA Ames, “Wi-Fi is an energy field that is transmitted as waves. The waves have a certain height, distance between them and travel at a certain speed. The distance between Wi-Fi waves is shorter than that of radio waves and longer than that of microwaves, giving Wi-Fi a unique transmission band that can’t be interrupted by other signals. Wi-Fi waves are about 3 to 5 inches from crest to crest.” Continue reading for more.

The crests of waves is translated to a 1 by a computer, and the the troughs equal a 0. Chains of 1s and 0s that can be translated into the letters, numbers and codes that make up websites, email and other internet content.

Typical wifi waves decrease in amplitude as they travel further from the source which is why the waves are larger to the right and smaller to the left, assuming the source is somewhere near the right of the image. This image shows an idealized wifi data transmitted over a band that is divided into different sub-channels, which are shown in red, yellow, green and other colors.

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