Rocket video calls his grandpa, who lives across the country. Grandpa's voice comes through clear as a bell.
"How does my voice get all the way there?" Rocket wonders after the call.
At the library, Raven runs her fingers over raised dots beside the elevator buttons. "And what is this code for?"
"What do you notice about both?" she asks.
Nova floats between them. "I found a pattern," she says. "Both turn information into a code, and then back again."
Phones and computers turn voices, words and pictures into patterns of numbers. That is called digital information.
Digital information can be sent over long distances without getting much worse.
At the other end, a phone decodes the numbers back into a voice you can hear.
Braille is a code that people read by touch. Each braille letter is made of raised dots.
The dots sit in a cell with room for six dots, three high and two across.
Sixty-three different patterns are possible from those six dots.
Louis Braille, who was blind, created this six dot system.
With only six dots, a fingertip can feel a whole letter at once.
| Statement | True or false? |
|---|---|
| Phones turn voices into patterns of numbers to send them. | ? |
| Braille is read by touch. | ? |
| A braille cell has room for ten dots. | ? |
| Digital information can travel long distances. | ? |
This week you met codes you can see, hear and touch.
Morse code can be sent with light or sound.
Braille is read with your fingertips.
Phones send voices and pictures as patterns of numbers.
Codes are everywhere once you notice them! Tomorrow at Launch Lab, your family invents its own code.