How not to get lost in the modern information world: a discrete and continuous form of information

"Whoever owns the information - he owns the world," - said Caesar. And this statement is more important than ever in our time. Today, information is inflicted daily by an endless stream of people. Sometimes it is so difficult to understand everything and not "get lost" in the modern information world!

In fact, all forms of information representation represent a reflection of the world around us with the help of code symbols and signs. In a word, at first information about the world around us is "coded" by some people, and then "decoded" by others. However, the whole complexity lies in the possibility of its distortion during this process. Therefore, it is important to understand what forms of information are available. The easiest way is to divide them into a continuous and discrete representation of the data.

Physical properties, geographical distances, areas of figures and a number of other parameters are continuous quantities. This is due to the fact that they can take any values, and between the intermediate versions there are no gaps, which allows us to speak about their "continuity". In turn, the discrete form of information representation describes quantities that can only take certain values. Such quantities, in particular, include the letters of the alphabet, the number of electrons in the atom, or the sequence of colors in the rainbow.

Despite the differences, these two forms of information are most often used together. Take, for example, the statement: "The area of this city is 864 sq. Km. Km. " "City" is discrete information, because in fact it restricts our research among other geographical objects only to this city. At the same time, "864" is continuous information, because in fact this area can be any, i.e. The value can take any values (from zero to infinity).

Forms of information about discrete values can be different. Most often, separate names are used for each such value. This applies not only to mathematics and physics, but also to everyday life. For example, we have the concept of "household appliances", and there is one of its meanings - "microwave", i.e. We gave one of the values of a discrete value a separate name! True, within each form there are also types of information presentation, so let's dwell on them in more detail:

1. Photography is a fixation of one moment from the life of the surrounding world, which is perceived as a moment from our memory, i.e. Completely corresponds to the human attitude.
2. A map or a drawing is an accurate image of the terrain that allows a person to quickly understand all the complexities of the objects of the surrounding reality.
3. Conditional signs and pictograms - a universal way of information exchange between people, which is understandable to representatives of different cultures and different ages.
4. And, finally, written and spoken speech is another way of sharing knowledge about the world around people of a particular socio-cultural group.

Now that you know what are the forms of presenting information, it will be easier for you to express your thoughts, and it will be easier for those around you to understand!