• Lag@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 hour ago

        We can streamline this by making the room into 2 small tunnels from the router to the PC. This way there will be less obstacles in the room. But we need to add leafblowers on each side with a boost button.

  • Zaphod@discuss.tchncs.de
    14·
    3 hours ago

    Not inherently stupid question; they just don’t know that radio waves don’t travel through air but through space.

  • silver_wings_of_morning@feddit.dk
    2·
    2 hours ago

    If it changes the air pressure, changing the refractive index, it will affect how fast the waves will travel. If you put it behind the router blowing towards the computer, does that increase the pressure? Then it would slow down I think. But this would only make a difference for a single wave packet; any real connection sends many packets and would be limited by the frequency of packets sent.

  • brown567@sh.itjust.works
    141·
    4 hours ago

    If you had a fan blowing out the window, it could slightly reduce the density of the air in your house, leading to a tiny increase in the speed of light through it, so that would make the waves technically faster, but by a vanishingly small margin

    It wouldn’t increase the bitrate of your router at all, so it wouldn’t make a difference, but the waves would be faster

      • Trailblazing Braille Taser@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        2·
        4 hours ago

        With less matter for the photons to interact with, I assume the WiFi’s SNR would be improved. If fewer data frames need to be retransmitted at the link layer (WiFi), I figure the apparent bitrate at the IP level might actually be improved!

        Actually, I would not be shocked if WiFi itself adapts to conditions, e.g. by sending less data per frame with more error correction bits when SNR is already low.

        (Not a networking expert, I am just bullshitting.)

    • qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website
      3·
      2 hours ago

      Not at all in this case though! Or rather, it depends on your perspective.

      “Why doesn’t electricity leak out the outlet?” is a good question, if you know nothing about electricity.

      “Why doesn’t electricity leak out the outlet?” is a little stupid, if you know a little about electricity.

      “Why doesn’t electricity leak out the outlet?” is a great question if you know a bit more about electricity (because it does leak out, it’s just that 50/60Hz doesn’t couple to freespace well unless you have a colossal antenna).

      As to this question, light in a moving media: https://preprints.opticaopen.org/articles/preprint/Fizeau_Experiment_Investigating_the_Speed_of_Light_in_Moving_Media/25441108?file=45147313

    • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
      13·
      5 hours ago

      This is not stupid at all. If Wi-Fi used matter instead of magnetic fields to propagate (like sound waves), a fan would affect it. Understanding magnetic fields is anything but intuitive.

      • Lyricism6055@lemmy.world
        5·
        5 hours ago

        Agreed, it’s just someone trying to learn.

        Alternatively I would guess if fans improved the speed we’d have wifi fans throughout the house. Gaming wifi fans that sound like an airplane taking off with blinding LEDs

        Imagine…

    • darthelmet@lemmy.world
      66·
      8 hours ago

      Tbf, it’s not like physics stuff is always obvious, especially when dealing with relativity or quantum mechanics. It just feels obvious if you’ve already learned about the research that’s already been done.

      It isn’t even remotely intuitive that light should have a max speed that can’t be added to by moving its source relative to other things. Plus, light does interact with matter, but it can only be slowed down by it.

      So less a stupid question and more just one that isn’t educated about something.

      • carl_dungeon@lemmy.worldEnglish
        131·
        2 hours ago

        Yeah yeah, I know. I was mostly just kidding. Everything is magic if you’re ignorant and we shouldn’t shit on people for not knowing something and props to them for asking and seeking knowledge and all that.

        But it’s really sad that very basic science like radio waves which are introduced in 5th or 6th grade could be so completely misunderstood.

        I remember my 6th grade science class having a lively 15 minute discussion about whether or not rockets can work in space since there’s no air…. We’re looking at videos of rockets working in space and then debating whether or not they do. 🙄

        • fishbone@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          1·
          26 minutes ago

          Not everyone went to the same school, and not everyone went to school, for any number of reasons. I first attended a health class in college.

        • pixelscript@lemm.eeEnglish
          3·
          6 hours ago

          I remember my 6th grade science class having a lively 15 minute discussion about whether or not rockets can work in space since there’s no air…. We’re looking at videos of rockets working in space and then debating whether or not they do. 🙄

          This feels a tad different than the person in the screenshot. Screenshot person fundamentally misunderstood how radio waves worked. Meanwhile, 6th grade you absolutely understood how rockets worked, at least to the level of understanding that they need air to work. Because you were right the whole time, those kinds of rockets can’t work in space without air. The slightly absurd solution that you wouldn’t readily know without a deeper understanding of how the rocket is built is that a rocket literally brings its own air with it!

          • carl_dungeon@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            2 hours ago

            Yeah- you make good points. I think what I was upset about was that we started with a given (they obviously work in space) and then half the class argued they didn’t for a while.

            A better question would have been “how can they work since space has no air in space?” which leads to great q & a I think.

      • theUwUhugger@lemmy.world
        2·
        5 hours ago

        Quantum physics is not logical, every other field of physics is! Shame that instead of logic we are taught fucking equations, as if we could look up logical conclusions like equations…

      • eating3645@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        5 hours ago

        Even less intuitively, the fan would increase the air pressure between the router and receiver, slowing light down slightly. So it would end up (imperceptibly) slowing the signal down.

    • webghost0101@sopuli.xyz
      17·
      8 hours ago

      On the contrary, given the premise its a smart observation from an unknownledged person.

      “Wifi is waves in the air” is very very wrong but as it appears it’s what this person was thought to believe. Given that they trust this information the conclusion makes perfect sense.

      The only “dumb” here is whoever explain wifi like this to them.

      So what the post really amounts to is. “I applied actual reasoning to the information i was provided as fact and my conclusion seemed strange, so i will ask on no stupid questions to figure out whats really going on”

      More intelligent than the majority of internet users.

    • Zwiebel@feddit.orgEnglish
      3·
      6 hours ago

      I mean technically the weather influences your ping, since the waves travel slower at higher air pressure

      Edit: Accidentally got it the wrong way around

      • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
        111·
        8 hours ago

        I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic but this is not true. Electromagnetic waves travel fastest in a vacuum, so the presence of air would slow it down very slightly and I would expect higher air pressure would slow it down further again only incredibly slightly because the electromagnetic waves would be traveling through a medium less efficient and more different than a vacuum.

        Of course I’m making an assumption that you were using wireless signals. For all I know, you could have some weird acoustic link in which case you’d be absolutely right.

      • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
        2·
        8 hours ago

        They would travel slower at high pressure and high temperature due to more interactions. Low temp and low pressure are the opposite. Sound is faster with high pressure and more complicated on temperature.

  • ✺roguetrick✺@lemmy.world
    19·
    7 hours ago

    Depends on the direction the fan is facing. If it’s blowing towards you, that increases air pressure in front of it, which means more things for photons to interact with and a lower speed of light, thus slower wifi. Away from you would decrease the pressure and result in faster wifi due to the increased speed of light. Theoretically at least. I don’t think this effect is measurable.

    Edit: thinking about it, the electromagnetic noise from a fan motor would likely be worse than the benefit. You might even be able to detect that

  • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    101·
    8 hours ago

    Not gonna lie, I thought about that, but I didn’t wanna risk sounding stupid, so I just google it instead of posting it on a forum. Luckily I didn’t actually make a forum post.

      • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
        3·
        7 hours ago

        You can define your fan to be moving space and the pushing of air is the side-effect.

        What poster above meant is that wifi is electromagnetic waves, so it does not care whether air is present or not. Air does not significantly hinder the propagation of electromagnetic waves. What you could do to speed up your wifi, in theory, is to fill your living room with argon. Argon has a lower refractive index than air, so the waves can travel faster. The downside is that you won’t be able to breathe.

  • oleorun@real.lemmy.fanEnglish
    7·
    8 hours ago

    I was an adjunct instructor at a local technical college teaching computer hardware courses. One student asked me if a hard drive that was full weighed more than a hard drive that was empty.