In science, and especially in physics and telecommunication, noise is fluctuations in and the addition of external factors to the stream of target information (signal) being received at a detector. In communications, it may be deliberate as for instance jamming of a radio or TV signal, but in most cases it is assumed to be merely undesired interference with intended operations. Natural and deliberate noise sources can provide both or either of random interference or patterned interference. Only the latter can be cancelled effectively.

More specifically, in physics, the term noise has the following meanings:

1. An undesired disturbance within the frequency band of interest; the summation of unwanted or disturbing energy introduced into a communications system from man-made and natural sources.
2. A disturbance that affects a signal and that may distort the information carried by the signal.
3. Random variations of one or more characteristics of any entity such as voltage, current, or data.
4. A random signal of known statistical properties of amplitude, distribution, and spectral density.
5. Loosely, any disturbance tending to interfere with the normal operation of a device or system.

Noise and what can be done about it has long been studied. It was Shannon who established information theory and in so doing clarified the essential nature of noise and the limits it places on operation of our (or anyone's) equipment. Shannon's work was a breakthrough.

In some cases a little noise may be considered advantageous, allowing a dithered representation of signals below the minimum strength, or between two quantization levels. This is especially true for signals intended for human appreciation, since the brain seems to expect signals to contain a degree of noise. See, for example [1] (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindhks/chapter/hack33.pdf)

Some sections copied from Federal Standard 1037C and from MIL-STD-188

See also

• shot noise
• 1/f noise
• white noise
• Johnson-Nyquist noise
• signal-to-noise ratio
• noise level
• noise power
• noise-equivalent power
• phase noise
• thermal noise
• list of noise topics
• Audio system measurements