Information theory, saving bits

By the year 2000, more than 40% of the work force will be involved in the collection, management, and dissemination of information. Efficient storage of this information and accurate and efficient transmission are important and relatively new problems for our society. This module introduces information theory, the mathematical treatment of problems that arise in the storage and transmission of encoded information in binary form. The applications, transmission of data from LANDSAT satellites and error correction in compact disc systems, will intrigue students and teacher alike. And a biographical sketch of Claude Shannon, the father of information theory, gives some perspective on the development of the subject. The module begins by presenting some simple binary codes used for transmitting data. Techniques such as block coding and Huffman coding are explored for their usefulness in attaining the least cost for a given code, as determined by Shannon's Theorem. In the process, students read and produce tables, perform operations with decimals, and apply probabilities of independent events. Additionally, there are opportunities to use base 2 logarithms, evaluate formulas the involve e