Lesson 10 · Capstone
Information in Phase
Relationships between phases can represent and transmit information.
A signal does not have to be stored only in amplitude. Information can also be represented by phase and by the phase difference between systems. This is an educational binary phase model — a real communications system involves additional engineering not shown here.
Original message
Received (decoded)
Live explanation
What is happening?
Press Send to begin transmitting the message through the chain.
Controls
Send a message
Controls how strongly the receiver accepts a weakened phase signal. Low sensitivity requires a stronger incoming signal.
What to notice
- Phase can represent information.
- Relative phase can remain meaningful during transmission.
- Noise introduces uncertainty.
- Stronger coupling may preserve coherence.
- Excessive damping can weaken the signal.
- A receiver uses a decision rule to interpret the phase.
Show the maths
Optional — the intuition already covers the important ideas.
The receiver assigns each incoming phase to the reference (0 or π) it is closer to. When noise pushes the received phase across the decision boundary, an error appears.
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