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Carrier wave
Definitions
- 1 A wave that can be modulated, either in amplitude, frequency, or phase, to carry or transmit images, music, speech, or other signals.
"This invention relates to carrier wave signaling systems and more particularly to systems of multiplex telephony employing carrier waves wherein such carrier waves of distinctive frequencies are normally impressed upon the transmission medium. Such medium may comprise any of the natural media employed in radio transmission or a conductive transmission line of any kind."
- 2 a radio wave that can be modulated in order to transmit a signal wordnet
- 3 Synonym of soliton (“a self-reinforcing pulse or travelling wave caused by any non-linear effect”). obsolete
"The same propagation through the same ether brought the rays of the sun's light from the sun to the earth, and the same carrier wave brought from the other side of the globe, from the oceans there, which were disturbed by the attraction of the sun and moon, those waves all round the coasts which were called tides. All these phenomena, from the tides and the wind to the rays of light and to the sounds of the telephone, were the motion of one simple phenomenon, the carrier wave, the wave of translation."
Etymology
From carrier + wave. Sense 2 (“soliton”) was coined by the Scottish civil engineer, naval architect, and shipbuilder John Scott Russell (1808–1882): see the quotations.
See also for "carrier wave"
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