Refraction and How it affects the signals

It is interesting to know how this phenomenon was discovered, which often gives us headaches, in what sense? We'll see...

The refraction of light was discovered since antiquity by Aristotle, since then many scientists have experimented with the refraction of light in mirrors and metal surfaces, but it was not until the invention of the camera obscura by the Arab scientist Alhazen, who know that light can be directed in the water. He discovered that when the light enters the water one part is reflected and the other is absorbed into the medium, but more importantly, the contour served as a means of transmission keeping it in the water and causing it to bounce inside it. (This principle is used in optical fiber)

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It is there that the astronomer and mathematician Willebrord Snel van Royense publishes Snell's Law, which is a mathematical formula that guides us in refraction according to the angle of incidence of light traveling from a medium with an "X" density to a "Y" density, three things can happen:

1. Total refraction: Occurs when the light according to the angle slides from one medium to another completely.
2. Partial refraction: Is when one part of the light bounces inside the middle X and the other part slides to the middle Y.
3. Total reflection: This occurs after exceeding the boundary angle between the two media in which there is a total reflection of the light from the medium X in the middle X.

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What does this have to do with the electromagnetic signals? The Scientist Isaac Newton showed that light had two simultaneous behaviors, one as a wave and another as a particle, which would be seconded by James Franck and Gustav Ludwig Hertz and later explained by Albert Einstein. Electromagnetic signals are waves that behave like particles, are generated from an antenna, which has a range according to its power, the closer to the source the easier it is for the device to capture the signal and spend less energy when trying to receive information.

The fact is that the WI-FI signal or the reception of the telephone are good or bad according to the distances that these have with respect to the sources that emit them, also influencing all the obstacles that get in the way, these can be:

Physical Obstacles

• Glass walls and windows: When the waves pass through the walls, a part of it is reflected by the difference in density between the air and the concrete, making the signal that slides on the other side of the wall weaker ( the more dense the wall the weaker it becomes) the same goes for glass or any obstacle that comes between the source of the signal and your device.

Natural obstacles:

• Geomagnetic Storms: These are caused by solar storms that interact with the Earth's magnetic field causing its alteration, and stability for normal propagation conditions.
• Rain: They affect the communications because when falling the drops of water generate a static, that form a species of Electromagnetic curtain that makes difficult the propagation of the signals.

So when it comes to wanting to improve signal reception on your computer, take these things into account and try to get closer to the source in the best case and thus improve the signal.