Transforming noise : a history of its science and technology from disturbing sounds to informational errors, 1900-1955 / Chen-Pang Yeang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Yeang, Chen-Pang, author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Noise--History--20th century.

Noise.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (497 pages)

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2023.

Summary:

Today, the concept of noise is employed to characterise random fluctuations in general. Before the twentieth century, however, noise only meant disturbing sounds. In the 1900s-50s, noise underwent a conceptual transformation from unwanted sounds that needed to be domesticated into a synonym for errors and deviations to be now used as all kinds of signals and information. 'Transforming Noise' examines the historical origin of modern attempts to understand, control, and use noise. Its history sheds light on the interactions between physics, mathematics, mechanical technology, electrical engineering, and information and data sciences in the twentieth century.

Contents:

Cover

Title

Copyright Page

Preface

Contents

1 Introduction

I ABSTRACTION AND MATERIALIZATION OF NOISE

2 Discordance and Nuisance

3 Materializing Cacophony: Surface Noise on Phonographic Records

4 Measuring Noise: From Ear-Balance to Self-Registration

II BROWNIAN MOTION AND ELECTRONIC NOISE

5 Brownian Motion and the Origin of Stochastic Processes

6 Electronic Noise in Telecommunications

III BUILDING A THEORETICAL REGIME

7 Dynamics of Brownian Motion

8 Spectrum of Random Noise

9 A Mathematical Foundation of Fluctuations

IV NOISE, SIGNAL, INFORMATION, AND WAR

10 Noise in Radar Detection

11 Filtering Noise for Antiaircraft Gunfire Control

12 Information, Cryptography, and Noise

13 Spread-Spectrum Communication

14 Conclusion

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Also issued in print: 2023.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on September 15, 2023).

Other Format:

Print version: Yeang, Chen-Pang Transforming Noise

ISBN:

0-19-199485-5

0-19-888777-9

OCLC:

1397323019