ABSTRACT
As we stated earlier, this book is about representing a lot by a little, and about doing a lot with a little. How is it that so much music can be represented on a small compact disk? How can the trajectory of an object be modelled using a small number of values, and why can it be depicted so quickly? Why is so little information needed to generate a fractal or to represent a surface? How can the details of a three-dimensional brain scan be made so vivid when the scanning devices are so noisy? We will be able to answer questions of this type as we progress through this book, but we need to understand how to put fundamental mathematical concepts to work for us as well. Our discussion will touch on many overlapping areas of study. The relationship among some of them is discussed in this chapter.
