Does sending data down a fiber optic cable take longer if the cable is bent? Ok, so, my simplified understanding of fiber optics is that light is sent down the cable and it rebounds off the sides to end up at its destination. Which got me thinking, if it has to bounce more times (and having a shorter travel between each bounce), does the light (data) take longer to get to the other end of the cable? Like this:
http://i.imgur.com/pCHUf.jpg 
A part of me is saying no, because it's still the same distance to travel and bouncing doesn't take up any time, but another part of me is saying yes because the light will have further to travel the more times it bounces, and thus will take longer to get to its destination. I'm swaying towards it taking more time.
Thanks!
 A: That picture is only really true for lightguide type large plastic fibres. For single mode fibre used in communication the wave is essentially directly down the centre
A: One of the main reasons fiber optics is a great engineering tool to distribute light is because virtually all of the light is internally reflected. Meaning there is very little light lost from transmission out of the cylinder. The main reason for this is because firber optics cables are small.
Larger optical fibers cause more losses to transmission because the incident angle is closer to the normal of the surface. We all know optical fibers are essentially completely transparent (unlike standard glass), so this also means that if the strand is considered infinitely long in relation to it's radius, the only light that won't be lost will be considered parallel to the cylinder axis.
So because optical fibers have a small radius and are "infinitely long", the light traveling inside is considered parallel to the cylinder axis. And since bending a strand doesn't change the strand's length, there is no effect on the time.
If, however, the radius of the strand isn't negligible in relation to it's length, all hypothesis fail and the light travel time may vary. However, in such a case, bending the strand isn't a trivial matter. I believe the strand would likely break before light travel distance varies enough to even consider taking it into account.
