Optical fibres

• Optical fibres

  Long, thin cylinders of glass/plastic.

  Light is fed into the cut end of the fibre, almost always at an angle greater than the critical angle. This means that its internally reflected and keeps bouncing down the fibre.
• Optical fibres made of glass are appropriate because no wave energy is lost, but because the glass is not perfectly transparent, some waves are absorbed.

  They are better than copper cables because c.c lose electricity because of electrical resistance.
• Fibre optics in medicine

  • Endoscopes are optical instruments w/ long tubes that can be inserted into a body organ through an opening like the nose, ears, mouth.
  • It allows a medical professional to see inside a body organ.
  • Also used in key hole surgery to guide the use of surgical instruments with a remote handling.
• Fibre optics in medicine (II)

  Each fibre in a bundle is as thin as a human hair and consists of a core, cladding and plastic coating.

  The image transmitted is pixelated since each fibre only transmits one pixel of coloured light. This means that the resolution is dependant on the number of fibres.