Eli5 How does the teeny tiny ‘actual’ undersea internet cable transport all the information requests from both sides of the Atlantic?

Question

If the huge layers of cables around it are just for protection, how can the large number of requests be transmutted through a cable that thin?

In: 2

Answer 1

Data doesnt have a volume like water or electricity. To move lots of data around you need high frequencies. These little electrons which transport the data for us are not travelling through the cable – instead they are sitting in a nice long line; if data arrives the electron gives a “lady bump” with its hips to the next electron, this repeats this etc. So the speed of transportation is limited by the frequency of the hip bumps we can feed to these electrons with our equipment, but not by the thickness of the cable.