Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!ai-lab!churchy.ai.mit.edu!campbell From: campbell@churchy.ai.mit.edu (Paul Campbell) Newsgroups: comp.dsp Subject: Re: Nyquist Rate Message-ID: <13687@life.ai.mit.edu> Date: 5 Mar 91 00:36:48 GMT References: <1991Mar2.230829.21497@eedsp.gatech.edu> Sender: news@ai.mit.edu Organization: The Internet Lines: 10 The Nyquist rate is the rate needed to sample a given bandwidth from zero up to that frequency but not including that frequency since the frequency of the sampling introduces harmonics which will be lost, including the top of the band, and any multiple of the Nyquist rate. This is not as bad as the frequencies outside of the band, which will be aliased. This is the whole basis of the Nyquist sampling theorem, to be able to determine what sampling rate to use for a given bandwidth. Realistically, for any decent resolution of the wave, you should sample at four times the maximum, but the absolute minimum (the limit, which will obviously not work at all) is the Nyquist rate, or twice the maximum frequency.