- Fidelity
Fidelity is a notion that at its most abstract level implies a truthful connection to a source or sources. Its original meaning dealt with loyalty and attentiveness to one's
duty to alord or a king, in a broader sense than the related concept of "fealty ". Both derive from theLatin word "fidelitas", meaning "faithfulness."In modern
human relationships, the term can refer to sexualmonogamy . In western culture this often means adherence tomarriage vows, or of promises of exclusivity or monogamy, and an absence ofadultery . However, some people do not equate fidelity in personal relationships with sexual or emotional monogamy. (For example, seepolyamory andOpen marriage .)Fidelity also denotes how accurate a copy is to its source. For example, a worn
gramophone record will have a lower fidelity than one in good condition, and a recording made by a low budget record company in the early 20th century is likely to have significantly less audio fidelity than a good modern recording. In the 1950s, the terms "high fidelity " or "hi-fi" were popularized for equipment and recordings designed for more accuratesound reproduction , while "lo-fi " music aims for "authenticity" over perfect production. Similarly inelectronics , fidelity refers to the correspondence of the output signal to the input signal, rather than sound.In the fields of
scientific modelling andsimulation , fidelity refers to the degree to which a model or simulation reproduces the state and behaviour of a real world object, feature or condition. Fidelity is therefore a measure of the realism of a model or simulation [cite web|url=http://www.sisostds.org/index.php?tg=fileman&idx=get&id=5&gr=Y&path=SISO+Products%2FSISO+Reference+Products&file=99S-SIW-167.doc|title=SISO-REF-002-1999: Fidelity Implementation Study Group Report] . Simulation fidelity has also been described in the past as 'degree of similarity' [cite book |author=Hays, R. |coauthors=Singer, M. |title=Simulation fidelity in training system design: Bridging the gap between reality and training |publisher=Springer-Verlag |year=1989|isbn=] .The computer age has spawned the term
Wi-Fi in reference to certain groups ofwireless electronic devices. While the termWi-Fi has been popularly taken to be an abbreviation of 'wireless fidelity',Wi-Fi is in fact a commercial brand owned by theWi-Fi Alliance , and has little to do with fidelity as a concept.References
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