Chris Angelico wrote:
One bit. It might send the message, or it might NOT send the message.
The entropy formula assumes that you are definitely going to send one of the possible messages. If not sending a message is a possibility, then you need to include an empty message in the set of messages. Another way to think about it: The receiver can be in one of N possible states, and you want to ensure that it's in a particular state. To do that, there must be N possible messages that you can send. If N = 1, the receiver is already in the right state, so you don't need to send it a message at all. Example: If the message is "I love you", and your SO already knows that, you don't need to tell them. (Not according to information theory, at least.) -- Greg -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
