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Do you get the message?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2016

R. P. Burn*
Affiliation:
Homerton College, Cambridge CB2 2PH

Extract

The aim of coding theory is not to deceive, but to make information impervious to errors in transmission. When messages are being transmitted along wires, the likelihood of mistakes in transmission is small. When messages are being transmitted by radio, lightning can distort reception. When messages such as television pictures are being transmitted across interstellar space, there is a substantial possibility, because of meteorites, that the message received will differ from the message transmitted.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Mathematical Association 1975

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References

Suggestions for further study

Birkhoff, G. and Bartee, T. C., Modern applied algebra. McGraw-Hill (1970).Google Scholar
Levinson, N., Coding theory, Am. math. mon. 77 (No. 3), 249258 (March 1970).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Lint, J. H., Coding theory. Springer (1971).Google Scholar