How does a satellite transmit data?

[html5468]

What I mean is, does the data get shot through the air? And if it does, how? Is it physically sent to the other satellite? I just don't get how it can get from one satellite to the other. How does the data get sent? And also, what is data? Is it electricity? And if it is, does that mean that satellites send electricity through the air? Please answer! And thanks to everyone who does!

 

[CocaCola]

Directional radio transmissions... And yes through the air and through the near vacuum of space...

 

[Raven Luni]

Is the vacuum of space a dyson?

 

[CocaCola]

I still can't get over the popularity of Dyson vacuum cleaners... I grew up with my mom owning one vacuum cleaner my entire childhood, a Rainbow D2 she purchased used... She traded it in (still in working order) for a D4 and still has that one today...

So when I moved out for nostalgia reasons I picked up a Model D2 (Cira late 60s), I got a heck of a deal on it on Ebay paid only $60 delivered and it looked like new with all attachments... It's now 2012 and, at over 50 years old it's still my daily household vacuum, and for the few minor repairs it's needed parts are still supper easy to get... I would love to see one of these Dysons in 50 years time

 

[html5468]

One more question:

How does it go through walls and other obstacles?

 

[alfa88]

I think what you're asking is how transmitters and receivers work. Resonance. Imagine you were in a piano store with a friend. You sit at one piano and he at another across the room. Your friend strikes a key. If the pianos are properly tuned your piano's string will vibrate at the same frequency. Sound is an ULF (Ultra Low Frequency) electromagnetic wavelength and radio frequencies are simply higher frequencies but instead of strings the electromagnetic waves are absorbed, as it were,on a wire and the tuning done basically by capacitors and inductors . As far as how does it go through walls? Think about it, If you were in one room and someone was in another room and they call out to you do you hear them through the walls?

 

[duke37]

No, sound is a pressure wave not an electromagnetic wave.

Electromagnetic waves can have a very wide range of frequencies. Transformers use low frequency waves but need a magnetic core for efficiency.
As frequency rises we go from long wave, medium wave and short waves and eventually get to light, X-rays and gamma rays. The higher the frequency the easier it is to focus the wave to send it in the direction you want. Also, the higher the frequency, the more information can be sent, hence fibre optic cables are use to send broadband.

If you understand how light works, you are close to how very high frequency radio waves work. Note that light will travel through glass but not brick and will never pass through a metal conductive sheet. (Wiki Faraday Cage)

 

[CocaCola]

How does it go through walls and other obstacles?

Lots of times it doesn't depends on the substance and the power/frequency of the radio wave... Most/many communications satellites transmissions are line of sight, aka no obstacle in between, that is why they are put in geostationary orbit so that from any point on Earth they are in a fixed location that you can easily aim at...

Lots of information out there to study if it interest you, and lots of new sciences to explore in that field as we progress more and more towards a wireless society...

 

[(*steve*)]

How does it go through walls and other obstacles?

There's 2 answers to this (maybe 3).

The first answer is the same way that light passes through a window. Radio will pass through walls that are transparent to that part of the spectrum. Light and other electromagnetic radiation (e.g. radio) differ only in frequency.

The second answer is reflection. Radio waves, like light, can be reflected.

The third answer also applies to light, but it's a lot harder to see examples of it. The difference between light and radio is the wavelength. Light has a much smaller wavelength. A cool thing is that electromagnetic radiation can mass by things smaller than a wavelength without being affected by them. For light, this is very small (nanometres), for radio is is much larger (hundreds of metres down to a few cm, depending on the frequency)

 

[html5468]

Thanks everyone!

 

[alfa88]

No, sound is a pressure wave not an electromagnetic wave.

Achh! I mis spoke again! SHD