What is Communications? | Definition, Types, Formula & Examples
What is Communications?
The invention of electronic communication is one of the great changes that have taken place in our world over the past 100 years. It all started with the telegraph and since then new inventions and innovations have created the information age including smartphones and high definition video on the Internet.
Telegraph
The invention of the origin of electronic communication is the telegraph. It was invented by Samuel Morse in 1836. He also developed Morse code that allowed the signals that the telegraph sent over wires to represent words and phrases.
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Telephone
About 40 years after the telegraph, Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone. Now, instead of just beeping, a person’s voice can be transmitted over long distances of wires. Later inventions such as the fax machine and the modem would allow other information to be transmitted over the same wire. Large switched networks have been built around the world, allowing phones in almost every household to connect to each other.
Fiber Optics
As the amount of information increases, more and more data must be transmitted over long distances. One of the ways to send data faster is to use fiber optic cables. Optical fibers are long thin tubes (like wires) made of glass. Instead of electricity, they transmit light. Light can travel at much faster speeds and over longer distances than electrical pulses. Today there are fiber optic connections that can send 100 billion signals per second!
Radio Frequency
Radio has been around for a long time, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that cell phones started to gain popularity. Cell phones send information using radio frequencies in the air. New technologies have made it possible to send signals and even video to and from cell phones faster.
Internet
The Internet is perhaps the most important invention in the field of electronic communication in recent times. The Internet is made up of millions of electrical and fiber optic links. These links form a network that allows information to travel and “travel” around the world. Much information is now available at your fingertips and on your home computer that you could never hope to read in your lifetime.
Fun facts about Electronic Communications
About 250 billion emails are sent every day. About 80% of it is spam.
About 20 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.
Optical fibers are good because they consume less power and are better for the environment than wires. They are also very weather resistant.
The first telephone pole was built in 1876.
There are more than 4 billion mobile phones in the world. More than 100 million cell phones are thrown away every year.