Explained Simply #4: How does Wi-Fi send a video through the air?
Radio waves at 2.4 / 5 GHz; changing the wave's strength and timing (phase) encodes the 1s and 0s of your video.
How does a video fly through the air to your phone? 📶🎬
1️⃣ RADIO WAVES: your router makes radio waves at 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz — that's 2.4 or 5 BILLION wiggles every second.
2️⃣ CHANGES = BITS: it keeps changing each wave's height and timing. Every tiny change carries a few 1s and 0s (real Wi-Fi packs up to 10–12 bits into each change).
3️⃣ BACK INTO BITS: your phone reads those changes back into bits — about 5 million every second for HD video (around 20 million for 4K). That's your video!
Waves, changes, bits!
Read the voiceover (transcript)
- How does a video fly through the air to your phone?
- Your router makes radio waves: two point four or five billion wiggles a second!
- It changes each wave's height and timing. Every tiny change carries a few ones and zeros.
- Your phone reads the changes back into bits, millions every second. That's your video!
- Waves, changes, bits!
- Next: how your phone remembers things! Follow for more!
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