The Nyquist rate

The Nyquist rate is the minimum sampling frequency needed to accurately capture a signal without losing information. Specifically, it is twice the highest frequency present in the signal. For example, if a sound has frequencies up to 10,000 Hz, the Nyquist rate is 20,000 samples per second. Sampling at or above this rate ensures that the original signal can be perfectly reconstructed from the samples, preventing issues like aliasing, which distorts the signal. This principle is crucial in digital audio, imaging, and communication systems to accurately digitize analog signals.