information theory: Quick Facts

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Last updated

Oct. 18, 2026

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Maxwell's demon learns to turn concealed information into usable energy for microscopic systems • Oct. 16, 2026, 2:50 PM ET (Phys.org)

Facts

Also Known As	communication theory

Photos

Shannon's communication model

binary symmetric channel

Fourier analysis

Two diagrams compare message transmission over a channel with different noise levels: the top shows a clear message with little noise, while the bottom shows a distorted message with considerable noise, illustrating information theory concepts.

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Topics

Shannon-Weaver information theory redundancy negative entropy entropy information processor cryptology information processing information communication cybernetics analysis probability theory computer science combinatorics algebra statistics geometry automata theory set theory trigonometry

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Key People

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Claude Shannon

American mathematician and engineer

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Harry Nyquist

American physicist

Blackwell, David

David Blackwell

American statistician and mathematician

Equations written on blackboard

Numbers and Mathematics