--- title: Phones and how a call travels — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Phones and how a call travels», a lesson of the technology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: When you ring Grandma, your phone's microphone turns the wobbles of your voice into electric signals, and the phone turns those into numb --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Technology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/) / Phones and how a call travels # Phones and how a call travels Lesson 35 of the technology course of Mova's primary school: 21 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/0/) — When you ring Grandma, your phone's microphone turns the wobbles of your voice into electric signals, and the phone turns those into numbers. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/1/) — It sends the numbers by invisible radio waves to the nearest phone mast, often a pole on a roof you have walked past a hundred times. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/2/) — From the mast, the numbers race through cables, across countries and even under oceans, to the mast nearest Grandma, then by radio to her phone, where a tiny speaker cone shakes and turns them back into your voice. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/3/) — All of that takes a fraction of a second. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/4/) — Each mast looks after a patch of land called a cell, which is why Americans say cell phone. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/5/) — Walk out of one cell and your call is quietly passed to the next mast, like a ball passed along a line of players. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/6/) — The most important number on any phone is the emergency one: 999 in the UK, 112 in the UK and across Europe. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/7/) — It works even with no credit, and it is only for real emergencies. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/8/) — In a mobile call, your phone turns your voice into numbers and sends them by radio to the nearest mast, and cables and other masts carry them to the other phone in a fraction of a second. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/9/) — The first mobile phone call was made in 1973 in New York. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/10/) — A phone mast has antennas that send and receive radio signals from phones in its area, called a cell, which is why mobiles are called cell phones in America; never climb a mast or its fence. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/11/) — The signal bars show how strong the radio signal from the nearest mast is, and hills, thick walls and lifts, with their metal walls, can block it. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/12/) — 5G is a newer way of sending phone data by radio that carries more data faster and uses many more small antennas; at the levels used it is safe, with radio waves like those of Wi-Fi and TV. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/13/) — A text message is sent to the network, stored and passed to the other phone when it can be reached; the first text, sent in 1992, said Merry Christmas. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/14/) — Never read or send messages while crossing a road. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/15/) — In a video call the camera captures your face, the phone squeezes the video into smaller data and sends it over the internet, which is why it can look blurry. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/16/) — Only video call people you know, and tell an adult if anyone online makes you uncomfortable. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/17/) — A landline phone sends the call along a wire or fibre to an exchange and on to the other phone, and many countries are switching off old copper phone lines. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/18/) — The emergency number, 999 in the UK and 112 across Europe and in the UK, connects you to an operator who sends police, fire, ambulance or coastguard; it works without credit, and you must say clearly where you are. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/19/) — A walkie-talkie sends your voice by radio straight to another walkie-talkie with no masts, and only one person can talk at a time, so people say over when they finish. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/35-phones-and-how-a-call-travels/20/) — A microphone turns sound wobbles into electric signals, and a speaker turns signals back into sound by shaking a little cone; very loud headphones for a long time can damage hearing for life. - ← previous: [Batteries](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/34-batteries/) - next →: [Computers and screens](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/36-computers-and-screens/) - ↑ back to [Technology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/technology/)