Construct · 1 fields · 1 citations

bit: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

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bit1 CONSTRUCTShannon bitSHANNON · UNIT OF INFO

A single standalone construct; nearby constructs are located against it in the Collider. Tap a field for its definition, unit, and measures.

Information theory

A measured unit of information

In information theory a bit is the unit of information: the amount that halves the uncertainty about an outcome, equal to what you learn from one answer to a question whose two answers were equally likely. Shannon's 1948 A Mathematical Theory of Communication defined it through the logarithm to base two of the number of equally likely possibilities, so information is measured on a continuous scale and a message can carry a fractional amount, such as 0.7 bits, when outcomes are not equally likely. This bit is a measured quantity of uncertainty, averaged over a source as its entropy, not a physical thing you can point to. It differs from the storage digit that is always exactly 0 or 1, from a bar of metal in a horse's mouth, and from a comedian's rehearsed routine.[1]

Unit
One bit of information halves the uncertainty; a continuous measure that can be fractional
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Computed from a probability distribution as a base-two logarithm and averaged as entropy over a source

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Nearby constructs

entropy6 fields · 12 citationsjingle · one name, six constructsinformation4 fields · 5 citationsjingle · one word, four constructsmessage3 fields · 6 citationsjingle · one word, three constructs

References

  1. Shannon, C. E. (1948). A mathematical theory of communication. Bell System Technical Journal, 27(3), 379–423. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x

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