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Why does FM sound better than AM?

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259 points zdw | 1 comments | 13 Oct 24 22:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.23s | source
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matrix2003 ◴[14 Oct 24 00:15 UTC] No.41832921[source]▶
Someone gave me an analogy some time ago that made a lot of sense.

If you shine a flashlight through a tree blowing in the wind and vary the brightness to convey information, the signal can get distorted pretty easily.

However, if you have a constant brightness source and vary the color, it’s a lot easier to figure out what the source is trying to convey.

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reader9274 ◴[14 Oct 24 00:34 UTC] No.41833031[source]▶
I always shy away from analogies because more often than not they give the wrong "feel" for a concept. But this is one of those rare exceptions.
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Filligree ◴[14 Oct 24 00:40 UTC] No.41833068[source]▶
It's not an analogy. This is precisely how it works.
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khazhoux ◴[14 Oct 24 01:00 UTC] No.41833163[source]▶
Unless your car radio consists of a flashlight and a tree, this is an analogy.
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llm_trw ◴[14 Oct 24 01:06 UTC] No.41833202[source]▶
The flashlight is the radio tower, the tree is the tree, and the radio in the car is your eyes. There is no analogy here, it is literally the same EM waves shifted up to where our eyes can see them.

It's like saying that the violins is merely an analogy for how a double base works.

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1. swores ◴[14 Oct 24 05:04 UTC] No.41834358[source]▶
It's not saying the violin IS "merely an analogy for how a double base works", just that a violin can be used as a simple analogy to somebody who understands how a violin works but doesn't know what a double bass is.

Comparing similar things is literally what an analogy is, the fact that in these two cases (radio/light and string instruments) the things being compared are very similar it doesn't make them the same thing, nor does it make it not an analogy.