Subject:  08/95 Wavefunctions.JPG
Author:  Laurie Grace
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Date:  7/7/1995

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From the August 1995 issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

The Benefits of Background Noise

by Frank Moss and Kurt Wiesenfeld

This 640 x 100 pixel image depicts how nonlinear systems detect only those periodic signals (red) that rise above some threshold. Noise (green) can boost a weak signal over the threshold and will most likely do so when that signal is close to its peak (blue region). Hence, the detector's output (black ticks) tells of the weak signal's periodicity.