Chapter 252 A Tour Inside IDS Part 3

After successfully showing Tiffania the wonders of computers, they began heading to another room.

Room for showing and demonstration of the products has long been prepared for a smooth passage of the tour. Alexander didn’t intend to stay in the headquarters for quite a long as he still had an administrative task to fulfill.

Philip, once again, opened the door with his peculiar card, prompting Tiffania, who had been wondering what made it completely curious. And whenever she is curious, there’s only one person to ask, and that is her brother.

“Brother, what type of card does Sir Philip use to open the door?”

“Oh, you mean the one he just put in his pocket? It’s just a card with a magnetic stripe on it. In those magnetic stripes are small magnets where personal binary data is stored.”

“Personal binary data stored in magnets?” Tiffania could feel her head beginning to spin from trying to understand that concept. It sounded too simple yet so complex to comprehend. Her knowledge of computer science and engineering was almost nonexistent. But it doesn’t help that she is also curious about how this machine works since she had never seen one before.

Seeing his little sister’s incredulous face, Alexander can’t help but smile fondly at her curiosity. So in order for her to understand the concept. So, he thought of some basic examples he could use while they walked inside the room.

“Tiffania, you know the basic concept of magnetism right? Unlike force attracts and like force repel?” Alexander was hoping for his sister to nod.

“I’m familiar with the concept of magnetism, brother. Why do you ask? Is it something that is related to the magnetic stripe you mentioned earlier?” Tiffania looked more eager than usual to understand what he was explaining. He smiled at her eagerness to learn something new.

“Yes, exactly. Consider this. Suppose someone had placed a magnet in a box with one end pointing up and the other down, and they challenged you to determine which way up the magnet is. All you have to do is to bring along another magnet, make it North-end-down, and wave it over the box. If it is repelled, then the magnet in the box is North-up, otherwise, it is South-up. Consequently, one magnet can be used as a magnet direction detector. Someone could take a row of magnets, arrange some of them North-up and others South-up, and save their message as a collection of binary numbers if they wanted to send you a secret message. Then, as your magnet is attracted to or repelled from them, you might wave it over them and feel the 0s and 1s. Do you still adhere to my example?” Alexander looked expectantly at his sister after hearing the explanation.

“When you dumb it down for me like that, brother, somehow I feel enlightened,” Tiffania said, smiling broadly. She felt as though she understood it all better. But it felt lacking, she wanted to learn more. When she was about to ask another question, she was stopped by Alexander.

“We’re here! Another marvelous technology crucial for the modern world,” Alexander introduced her to a small cylindrical tube.

Tiffania blinked as she just saw its appearance. “What is that?” Seriously, it’s just a small cylindrical tube similar to a pen with a diameter of 1.5 millimeters or smaller and a length of five to six centimeters.

“As I expected,” Alexander’s gaze was lukewarm for some reason. “It’s best to show rather than tell you what the object’s function is.” He grabbed the pen-like device and pressed a small button on it.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

In an instant, a beam of red light shot out of the end of the pen and enveloped the two objects, marking the white-washed wall with a red dot.

Still, Tiffania’s face is frozen with confusion. “Uhm, sorry brother, I can’t figure out its greater purpose other than lighting a small dot on a wall. You said it was one of the marvelous technology crucial for the modern world but my impression of the device is not as favorable as yours.”

“Hmm, that’s fine because my goal is to show and explain to you the concept. Aren’t you going to ask what’s the device I’m holding?”

“What’s the name of this brother?”

“The name of this device is a laser pointer but the beam of red light is called a laser.”

“Laser?” Tiffania repeated the name.

Alexander nodded slowly. “That’s right, laser, or if you prefer the longer name, the laser stands for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.”

“Woah…” Tiffania is speechless for a moment before she speaks again. “I don’t know what that is but it sounds awesome. So, can you dumb it down how it works, and the use of it?”

“With pleasure,” Alexander cracked his neck before continuing. “So if you are reading some theoretical physicist books about quantum mechanics you’ll encounter a concept of light that is made up of photons that behave in a particular way like it can be a wave or as a particle. When energy is added to an atom, they emit light or photons. The idea of a laser is to capture those photons in a mirror-lined container so that they rebound simultaneously, triggering a chain reaction of photons which then results in a concentrated beam.”

“Now I see what you mean by stimulated emission of radiation, right brother?” Tiffania tried to follow what Alexander was saying.

“Exactly,” he replied, nodding in acknowledgment.

“There are various materials used to produce a specific type of laser light,” Alexander paused as he glanced at Philip. “Can you open the television for me?”

“Yes sir,” Philip, who has been silent almost the entire time, stepped closer to the television and pressed the power button.

A recorded presentation of the laser was shown on the screen of television.

Alexander continued.

“You are familiar with ruby right? Ruby crystals are surgically precise and can be used for medicinal purposes. It can also remove tattoos. There are also types of lasers where the lining doesn’t have to be solid like a ruby, for example, gas lasers, which are more powerful than ruby lasers, can be used to cut steel plates and welding metal. Semiconductor lasers are used to generate low-power beams such as the one in my hand. Lasers can be used to read barcodes by capturing the reflected light and decoding it into a numerical sequence of binary codes which are useful in the field of commerce. Lasers can also be used for entertainment and a tool for surveyors and architects due to their accuracy and measuring distances.”

“Wait wait wait! Brother, are you telling me that the device you are holding has so many applications?” Tiffania questioned.

He nodded in reply. “Indeed I am. Lasers can also be used to transmit data from one place to another at the speed of light. I’m sure at this point you know how impressive a laser is.”

“Are we the only country that developed these lasers?”

“Yes. Ruthenian technology is the best in the world right now. Okay, I think that’s it for now,” Alexander beckoned Philip to turn off the television.

“Philip, is the credit card machine reader ready?” Alexander asked.

“Yes sir,”

“Good, it will make its first debut when we open the first shopping mall in Khoroshyovsky District.”

“Huh? Credit cards, shopping malls? What are you two talking about, brother?”

“Oh, you know the card Philip is using to open the door right? Credit cards work like that.”

“Yeah…” Tiffania mused, if it’s the same as the card Philip uses, then there’s no need to ask further.

“Let’s move on.”