Concepts

Short, focused explainers for the building blocks behind the courses. Each one is a few minutes: a careful write-up, an interactive demo, and a three-question check so you know it stuck. Open one mid-lesson when you hit something unfamiliar, or browse them on their own.

5 available now · 11 on the way

Complex numbers

Numbers as points in a plane, where multiplying means rotating. The arithmetic behind phase, spectra, and the FFT.

math ~5 min
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Euler’s formula

Why e appears in a formula about circles, and why eⁱᶿ means “rotate by θ”. The spiral construction makes both visible.

math ~7 min
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Parameterization and substitution

Two different moves hide inside “substitute and simplify”: composing with a new input, as in θ = 2πft, and extending a definition, as in eⁱᶿ. Which move is in play determines what stays true.

math ~6 min
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Logarithms and exponents

The inverse of raising-to-a-power: why logs turn multiplication into addition, what log₂ counts, and how to read a log the way you read an exponent.

math ~6 min
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Probability: events and independence

Events, the probability of an event, and the product rule: why independent chances multiply, the fact behind every “bits add” argument.

math ~6 min
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Probability distributions

The whole table of outcomes and their probabilities as one object: the thing entropy is a property of, and the thing a model predicts.

math ~6 min
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Expected value

The probability-weighted average: what “on average” means precisely, and how Σ p(x)·f(x) computes it.

math ~5 min
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Summation notation (Σ)

Reading Σ like a for-loop: index, range, body, including what an infinite sum means.

math ~4 min
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Sine waves

Amplitude, frequency, phase, and period: the four knobs of a pure tone, and why T = 1/f.

mathsignals ~6 min
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Vectors and the dot product

Signals as arrows in N dimensions: the dot product as similarity, and orthogonality as “zero overlap”, the geometry under correlation and the DFT.

mathsignals ~7 min
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Trig identities from the rotating point

Sum-to-product, product-to-sum, and sin·cos, derived geometrically from circular motion instead of memorized.

math ~6 min
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Decibels (dB)

How dB turns enormous loudness ratios into small, readable numbers, and why +6 dB means double.

audio ~5 min
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Signal-to-noise ratio

What SNR measures, how it is quoted in dB, and where the 6-dB-per-bit rule comes from.

audiosignals ~5 min
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Logarithms and log scales

Reading logarithmic axes, octaves, and orders of magnitude, the scale most charts on this site use.

math ~6 min
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Sinc and band-limited reconstruction

What “band-limited” means, why exactly one band-limited curve passes through a valid set of samples, and how sinc pulses rebuild it.

signals ~7 min
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Bits and binary counting

Why N bits give 2ᴺ labels, and how binary counting underlies bit depth, bitrate, and “bits” as a unit of information.

math ~4 min
coming soon