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Beehaw technology can you help explain like I'm five, 5g vs 4g? (self.technology)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Wigglet to c/technology

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I kinda understand it has to do with frequencies and the speed they can send information but I don't know enough to have a productive conversation with those that think it's mind altering cancer rays. Thats also what i keep running into online when I'm trying to find a dummy version for how it all works. I know I'll probably never be able to have a truly productive conversation with those types but i would like to have a better understanding myself.

It would be helpful to explain and frame it with radio and public broadcasting as well. to me, these are all happy information rays that send me thing i like but i don't full understand the technology behind it.

Thanks everyone this has been super helpful! Might try and make an info graph for to hang in my post box since I've gotten some crazy anti 5g flyers recently

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[–] cakeistheanswer@lemmy.fmhy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Alright, more of a eli5 as I'm more folk knowledge than a scientist.

It's a narrower (more dense) wavelength.

If you think of signal, any signal, how close you are to it, the total power of that signal and the quality of your receiving gear are going to be your three major factors in "speed".

5g gains the ability to broadcast more waves iif you're close, at the expense of distance.

If you're looking to send communications further; wider (lower density) waves face less resistance. Just the same way you can seemingly get AM radio (bouncing off our atmosphere) anywhere vs FM radio (line of sight), each has a function.

You can find rural houses like mine, or the futures trades riding from the burbs to downtown with microwave (narrower than 5g) connections. They're pretty atmosphere resistant but require tuning to hit relays the size of about a soda can.

I don't think the longitudinal studies have been done on what frequencies over long periods of time produce negative results, the areas of spectrum we are working with have no real analogues in scope I'm aware of. Which is exactly why there's room to scaremonger over it.

Anecdotally I've worked a decade in an adjacent field and never heard of anyone contacting the plague.

[–] Wigglet 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Again but I am 3 years old. Particularly the longitudinal paragraph

[–] cakeistheanswer@lemmy.fmhy.ml 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Long term science.

Nobody's taped someone to a table and shot em with those rays. And there has never been more of them going around, so there's no comparison either.

When we say something is a cure or cause it's born out of a ton of testing and time.