Morse Code

What is Morse Code?

Morse Code is a code for translating letters to dots • and dashes —. These represent a short and long signal duration.

Who Is Samuel Morse?

Samuel Morse developed the code in the 1830’s to send messages through the telegraph machine.

What is the Telegraph? How Does it Work?

Electrical signals are translated to auditory or written dots and dashes.

Why is it Useful for Morse Code?

Dots and dashes can easily be encoded for Morse code.

Why do we use Morse Code?

➥ Easy communication across long distances.

➥ Played a critical role in World War II for the NAVY. It was more secure and traveled a longer distance than voice telephone!

Did you know?

The common distress signal “SOS” doesn’t stand for anything, instead it was chosen as it is easy to transmit.

••• — — — •••

Fun Fact:

➤ Morse code was designed so that the length of each symbol is inverse to its frequency of occurrence in the English language (more common=shorter and vice versa)

➤ The most common letter in the English language is ‘E’, thus the Morse code for ‘E’ is a single dot: •

➤ The next most common letter is the letter ‘T’, thus the Morse code for ‘T’ is a single dash: —