How are internet cables able to withstand the devastating pressure at the ocean floor? Will it not be destroyed?
In: Engineering
They are solid through and through. Solids are not really compressible. You are thinking of a submarine getting crushed. But there’s the difference – in a submarine, you have to maintain a pressure difference between inside and outside. You want your crew in normal pressure air. That creates a force on the hull. In a cable, there is no such pressure difference.
Inside things that the ocean usually crushes (like submarines or animals), there’s squishables and/or empty space for the water to crush/push other parts of the object into. Metal cables and the crazy protective coverings do not have cavities or crushable sections, so the water does push hard on it but that doesn’t really do anything.
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