Coset — where it appears
Named by 2 essays across one field — each of them below, with the objects they name alongside it.
Also named here as hamming code — the same set of essays touches all of them, so they are one junction rather than several.
Sixteen spheres that fill a cube
A hundred and twenty-eight seven-bit words, sixteen of them chosen, and a ball of eight around each. Sixteen times eight is a hundred and twenty-eight exactly — so the balls tile the space with nothing left over, and the code wastes nothing at all.
Finding the error without reading the message
Three parity checks on a seven-bit word produce three bits. If they are all zero nothing is wrong; otherwise they are the number of the position that broke. The message is never consulted, because the answer does not depend on it.
Named alongside it
The objects these essays reach for when they reach for this one.
Error correcting codeHamming codeCounting argumentDecision procedureHamming distanceLinearityMinimum distanceParityParity checkPerfect codeSphere packing boundSyndrome