Airplane mode
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A: A flight attendant told me to put my phone in airplane mode. How do I have to do that?
B: This setting isnât to protect your flight. Itâs to protect everyone else in your flight path
A: Why is that?
B: Cell phones connect to networks by emitting information in the form of electromagnetic waves, specifically, radio waves. These waves come in a range of wavelengths. When you make a call, your phone generates a radio wave signal which it throws to the nearest cell tower.
A: What if I am far from service?
If youâre far from service, your phone will expend more battery power to send a higher amplitude signal in an effort to make a connection. Once connected, this signal is relayed between cell towers, all the way to your callâs recipient
A: How do the cell towers know which call is mine?
B: Since your call isnât the only signal out here, cell towers managing the calls assign each phone involved their own wavelength. This specific color ensures youâre not picking up other peopleâs calls. Itâs even slightly different from the wavelength your phone is receiving information on, so as not to interfere with that incoming signal
A: What about there are too many colors to choose from?
B: There are only so many colors to choose from, and since the advent of Wifi, the demand for ownership of these wavelengths has increased dramatically. With all these signals in the air and a limited number of colors to assign, avoiding interference is increasingly difficult. Especially when cell towers receive too many signals at once, such as during regional emergencies, when everyoneâs trying to use their phones
A: What does switching to airplane mode do in this situation?
B: It is one of the preventable sources of interference. Phones on planes are very far from cell towers, so they work overtime to send the loudest signal they can in search of surveys. Since planes travel so quickly, the phones might find themself much closer to a cell tower than expected, blasting it with a massive signal that drowns out those on the ground. So when you fly without using airplane mode, youâre essentially acting as a military radio jammer, sending out giant radio waves that interfere with nearby signals. Even on the ground, almost all our electronics emit rogue radio waves, slowing down your internet and making your calls choppy
A: What is its effect?
B: This may lead you to pay for more bandwidth, pushing service providers to take over more of the radio spectrum. Eventually, they will send more satellites into the sky, creating a vicious cycle that could eventually block out the stars. Though even without these satellites, this system is threatening our relationship with the cosmos.
A: How can it threaten the cosmos?
B: Radio telescopes used for astronomy rely on a specific band of wavelengths to see deep into space. However, while this range is supposedly protected, the cutoffs arenât enforced. For example, the VeryLarge Array can see signals throughout our solar system from 1 to 50 GHz, but if it tries looking for signals below 5 GHz, its search could be drowned out by a sea of phones on 5G networks