Information Theory
In the context of arithmetic coding, an interval is a continuous range of values that represents a portion of the cumulative probability distribution of symbols. This interval is crucial for encoding data because it helps to map sequences of symbols into a single fractional number, which ultimately allows for efficient data compression. As each symbol in a sequence is processed, the interval narrows, refining the representation until a unique value is assigned to the entire sequence.
congrats on reading the definition of Interval. now let's actually learn it.