Science desk
< December 11	<< Nov \| December \| Jan >>	December 13 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Science Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

December 12[edit]

What does "impresses information" mean?[edit]

Sentence from Transmitter: The transmitter also impresses information such as an audio or video signal onto the radio frequency current to be carried by the radio waves. Rizosome (talk) 09:21, 12 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

To mark or stamp (sense 4). Basically, to press. Card Zero (talk) 10:43, 12 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

See also Carrier wave.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 13:13, 12 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

To be honest, "impress" is a bad word choice here. It encodes information in the carrier wave. The use of impress here seems confusingly metaphorical. --Jayron 32 04:09, 13 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

And what, in this sentence, is "to be carried by the radio waves"? Is it the radio frequency current, or the information "impressed" thereon? The sentence is ambiguous. This description in the section Operation repeats in an awkward way what was already said before more clearly in the section Description. --Lambiam 06:39, 13 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I was thinking "modulate" could be the best choice of verb (since "encode" suggests the signal might be encrypted). Then I looked at Modulation, and it uses "impress"! Card Zero (talk) 09:46, 13 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Because of this edit, I got the clear idea of the word. Rizosome (talk) 10:46, 13 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved