Re: [Phys-L] physics in the real world : WAN in a cage

[John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>]

On 9/30/23 4:29 AM, I wrote:

> Here's a fun example of physics in the real world: What's wrong with
> this picture?
>
> Overview:
> https://av8n.com/physics/img48/wan-printer-cage.png
>
> Close-up:
> https://av8n.com/physics/img48/wan-cage.png

Did y'all notice that the antennas are horizontal? That's not good.

The national network is designed to work with client devices that
have vertical antennas. There are good physics reasons for this.

There is only one vertical direction, but lots of horizontal
directions. Compared to vertical, some of the horizontal directions
will be slightly worse, and some will be vastly worse.

1) It shouldn't be in a cage.

2) Whether or not it's in a cage, the antennas should not be
horizontal.

Yeah, sometimes a horizontal antenna will work, but we are talking
about an application that requires high reliability, and horizontal
is less reliable.

===================

This illustrates a fundamental point about thinking skills:
Sometimes even the simplest question can have multiple
correct answers. Just because you have found "an" answer
doesn't mean you have found /the/ answer. Think in terms
of the /solution set/. Sometimes the solution set has more
than one element.

https://www.av8n.com/physics/ill-posed.htm