Physics 155 Physics Behind the Internet Why Study

Physics 155 Physics Behind the Internet

Why Study This? • Teach Physics in a Context • Its important for citizens to know how stuff works • A technological society can not afford to be ignorant and believe in magic • Communications/information has large scale societal consequences

Themes of This Course o Communication, Information, Communication Networks and Bandwidth o What are the rules of information? o How does information propagate? o How do you ensure the integrity of information? o How is information encoded?

Device Physics How does electricity work? n How do you make a circuit? n What’s a transistor? n What’s a semi-conductor? n How does a computer work? n How does my digital camera work? n How does my cell phone work? n

Photons versus Electrons Why are lasers an essential part of communications networks l Why does my DVD player have a laser? l Why is photon encoded information so much better than electron encoded information? l Why should I invest money in Photonic Devices? l

Internet Routing and Chaos • • • How do networks work? How does routing work? What’s a packet? What’s packet loss, latency, collision? How can the internet even function as it grows exponentially – won’t we run out of addresses?

Social Issues n Is the Internet a net good to society or a net evil? n Does it encourage social isolation? n Does it improve or degrade personal communication skills? n Who should control the Net? n What’s the end game evolution of the Net? n Do we want that?

Overall • This course is not so much a physics course (although you will be exposed to more physics than you realize) – rather it’s a course about science, technology and society. • Assignments will be done as mini-research projects by teams of students. Learning how to collaborate is essential.