How do phones know who to call?

Question

I don’t understand how when I call someone the phone doesn’t call all the other phones or can pinpoint the exact one I am calling.

In: Technology

Answer 1

Because of phone numbers. A hundred years ago when you picked up the phone, it would go to a human operator that would physically plug in a wire to connect you to another phone. But when they invented phone numbers, it allowed automatic switches to know which phone line you wanted to be connected to. Now it’s all digitized, but your phone number is still a unique identifier if your phone line, different from all the other phone lines in the world.