When a person encounters an area of information, she can classify that information as simple or complex.

A simple area of information is a unit that serves one function in an information system. This unit may be comprised of one or more physical or conceptual parts, and can be defined according to its characteristics, organization, function, and relationship to the system that contains it. Each unit can have only one functional relationship with any other entity. At its simplest, an area of information marks only difference, degree of difference, or change in the state of the system containing it. Simple information may be found in a simple information system with a few parts, or may serve a unique function within a complicated information system.

A person can identify simple information in the signal that causes a light bulb to light up. When wires connect the positive and negative ends of a battery to the two metal contacts at the base of a light bulb, electric current flows over the wires, between the battery and the bulb, forming a circuit. The current flowing over the wires acts as a signal when it causes the state of the bulb to change from unlit to lit. (For a complete description of how a light bulb works, click here). The signal is simple information because it causes one aggregate change in the physical state of the system from one moment in time to the next. Although both heat and light are created/produced, these can be considered components of a single aggregate change in the physical state of the system. Only one area of information; i.e., the signal embodied in the electric current, interacts with one component of the system, the filament that releases heat and light when it interacts with the current to produce the change from the absence of light to the presence of light.

At its simplest, an area of information marks only difference, degree of difference, or change in the the state of the system containing it. Differences in the relationships among simple elements are informative when they change over an interval of time, or reveal themselves to another entity. The fewer the number of relationships an area of information represents, the simpler that information is.

Complex information is an organization of several different parts and/or groups of parts that serve more than one function at a time, and/or are informative to more than one part of an information system over the same period of time. The relationships among its component parts, and between those parts and the parts of the information system it interacts with may be complicated.

The sixteen-digit number embossed on a credit card carries information in both its structure and the characteristics of the individual digits that comprise it. The information coded in this number can represent several different functions and entities to several parties (the cardholder, the merchant the cardholder interacts with, the entity that processes the transaction and the bank or organization that issues the card) at once. When a person uses a credit card to purchase goods from a merchant, the card number represents an account to the organization who issues and controls it, the person who holds the account, and any party such as a merchant, broker, customer service representative, bank teller, etc. the account holder interacts with.

A credit card number's complexity exists in the number's function as a container for several smaller groups of numbers or individual digits that represent different functions, classifications, or entities. Both an digit's position in the account number and its numerical identity can contribute to its significance. For instance, the first digit in a credit card's number designates the credit card system it belongs to. Its identity as a 3,4,5, or 6 may be correlated with a particular system: 3 for American Express, 4 for Visa, 5 for MasterCard, and 6 for Discover. Other groups of digits may represent the particular bank that issued the card, and the account number issued by the bank to the cardholder on different types of cards. The second through sixth digits on a Visa card comprise a five-digit number that represents the bank that issued the card. The last, or sixteenth digit on any credit card is generally a check digit that is used to authenticate the rest of the information carried in the other numbers.

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