Communication Methods
Just 150 years ago, a routine telephone call was not possible, images were delivered in person, and newspapers brought headlines of information that may have been days or weeks old. There was no television or radio coverage of world events. There was no World Wide Web for the world to share its collective knowledge.
Yet today, the ability to communicate with our business partners, colleagues, friends, and loved ones over long distances and at any time of the day is taken for granted. Via phone calls, e-mail, or fax, we transmit pictures, voice or text to almost anyone and anywhere at anytime. Communication has become faster, cheaper, and more commonplace. Mathematics is used to encode, transmit, and decode data in a practical and secure way. Mathematics drives the new technology and makes the communication revolution possible.
The Challenge of Long-Distance Communication
Communication involves the sharing of ideas, information, sounds, or images. Communicating over distance requires three stages: encoding, transmitting, and decoding. For instance, about 1,500 years ago, the Incas—a highly organized, methodical culture without any written language—used quipus to communicate numeric information. A quipu was a method of encoding numbers for record keeping, and it involved an intricate set of knots tied into colored cotton cords that were connected in specific ways.
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