I get this
question a lot. It’s not exactly phrased this way though. Typically it’s along
the lines of “What’s the wavelength of the WiFi signals in my home or office?”
Good question and a pretty
simple calculation! I do realize with a quick Google search you can
look the value up but….. that takes the fun out of it J
First, let’s define
wavelength. Electromagnetic radiation is sinusoidal in
nature and wavelength, represented by the Greek letter lambda (λ), is a distance
measurement usually expressed in meters. Wavelength is defined as the
distance in meters of one sinusoidal cycle as illustrated in the figure below.
Most WiFi signals run at around 2.4 Giga Hertz (GHz) or 2.4 Billion cycles per second!
Now, in
you home or office, you’ve likely got a lot of other wireless devices (microwave,
ovens, cordless phones, baby monitors, etc) operating in this same 2.4 GHz frequency
range. In the WiFi world, the 2.4 GHz WiFi signal range is divided into 11
channels and channels can be selected when setting up a wireless network
to avoid other devices transmitting in the same frequency range.
Ok – back to our question – what’s the wavelength? Here’s how
we do the calculation:
12.5 cm is approximately 4.92 inches and...... that's your wavelength.
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