Shannon (unit)
Okay kiddo, have you ever seen a message on your computer or phone? Well, sometimes those messages are really long or really complicated, right? So how can we measure how much information is in that message?
That's where something called a "Shannon unit" comes in. It's a way of measuring how much information is in a message. Think of it like a ruler that measures how long something is, but instead of measuring length, it measures how much info is in the message.
The Shannon unit is named after a man named Claude Shannon, who was a really smart guy who came up with a lot of ideas about how to measure and communicate information. He figured out that we can measure information by looking at how unpredictable it is.
Let me explain - if I give you a message that says "The sky is blue," is that a very surprising message? No, right? We already know that! But if I tell you something really surprising, like "Elephants can fly," that's a much more unpredictable message.
So, the Shannon unit measures how much surprising or unpredictable information there is in a message. The more surprising or unpredictable the message is, the more Shannon units it has.
And that's pretty much it! Shannon units are just a way of measuring how much information is in a message, based on how unpredictable or surprising it is.
That's where something called a "Shannon unit" comes in. It's a way of measuring how much information is in a message. Think of it like a ruler that measures how long something is, but instead of measuring length, it measures how much info is in the message.
The Shannon unit is named after a man named Claude Shannon, who was a really smart guy who came up with a lot of ideas about how to measure and communicate information. He figured out that we can measure information by looking at how unpredictable it is.
Let me explain - if I give you a message that says "The sky is blue," is that a very surprising message? No, right? We already know that! But if I tell you something really surprising, like "Elephants can fly," that's a much more unpredictable message.
So, the Shannon unit measures how much surprising or unpredictable information there is in a message. The more surprising or unpredictable the message is, the more Shannon units it has.
And that's pretty much it! Shannon units are just a way of measuring how much information is in a message, based on how unpredictable or surprising it is.