Is modulation still the same as the old study design?

[NathanGauci]

Hi all, I was doing a question from the 2012 VCAA exam and was stumped. Do we still need to know how to do questions like this?

If not is there anything about modulation that we need to know? Our teacher sort of skipped over that part :/

[speedy]

Yes you do, it is definitely still on the course.

[myanacondadont]

Yes you do, it is definitely still on the course.

While we're talking about it, is there much to it? I always stuff up on these questions and they are definitely the worst part of my understanding - my teacher never even touched on modulated waves and stuff throughout the year.

How do you go about it?

[speedy]

While we're talking about it, is there much to it? I always stuff up on these questions and they are definitely the worst part of my understanding - my teacher never even touched on modulated waves and stuff throughout the year.

How do you go about it?

I think it's quite simple, basically:

Carrier wave: high frequency, used to transfer the signal through a different medium (eg. light)
Signal wave: low frequency, from input device (eg. electrical signal from microphone)

The signal wave is superposed/encoded onto the carrier wave, such that the amplitude of the carrier wave varies with the amplitude of the signal.

Demodulation is simply the extraction of the signal wave from the carrier.