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How does a message zip across the world in a blink? Bitty shows Moogi the secret, packets!
Moogi: Bitty! How did your message get to me so fast? You were all the way across the meadow!
Bitty: Internet magic! Well... not magic. Packets!
Moogi: Packets?
Bitty: When I send a message, I chop it into little pieces called packets. Each one gets a number and an address.
Bitty: Then the packets hop from one router to the next. Routers are like signposts that point each packet the right way.
Bitty: Want to try? Press send. Then tap a router to break it, and see what the packets do!
Send a message: play it in the world above!
Moogi: The packets went different ways... and they arrived all jumbled up!
Bitty: That's okay! Your computer uses the numbers to put them back in order.
The internet sends messages as small numbered packets. They can travel by different routes and still be put back together at the end.
Moogi: And when you broke a router, the packets just went around it!
Bitty: Yep. The internet has lots and lots of paths. If one breaks, packets find another way. And if a packet gets lost, it's simply sent again.
There's no single road. Lots of connected paths make the internet tough. If a packet goes missing, it gets sent again.
Moogi: So every message is a tiny parade of packets!
Bitty: A very, very fast parade. Zoom!