Compression: Crash Course Computer Science

So last episode we talked about some basic file formats, but what we didn’t talk about is compression. Often files are way too large to be easily stored on hard drives or transferred over the Internet - the solution, unsurprisingly, is to make them smaller. Today, we’re going to talk about lossless compression, which will give you the exact same thing when reassembled, as well as lossy compression, which uses the limitations of human perception to remove less important data. From listening to music and sharing photos, to talking on the phone and even streaming this video right now the ways we use the Internet and our computing devices just wouldn’t be possible without the help of compression.