traditionally the difference between 1 and 0 is represented by a change in voltage. but is it worth it to represent them with a difference in frequency? does anyone know where i can read about that? would it be more beneficial since you could have extra states? low frequency, a mid range and a high? similar to ternary but would it be easier with changing frequencies as opposed to different voltages? and perhaps even more states.

 

i assume i'm not the first person to wonder this so can anyone point me in the direction where i can learn more about it?

Just to be clear, it's not the change in voltage that gives you 0's and 1's, but either a high or low voltage, for example 0V could be a 0 and 5V could be a 1. So imagine a sinusoidal wave at whatever frequency oscillating from 5V to -5V, passing through zero (sometimes 5V and -5V can both be read as 1). So if you are changing the frequency you are only changing the rate at which you are receiving those 0's and 1's. Hence why computer processors are given in frequency, the higher the frequency the faster the rate of information sent: A 3Ghz processor is slower than a 4Ghz.

 

So doing it by changing the frequency, to me, doesn't seem like it would be advantageous and most likely would not provide fast results.

Difference in frequency of what? Binary implies digital, but frequency implies analog.

 

In optical systems this would not work, because you try and use different frequencies to multiplex. On is 1 and off is zero, but you can send signals using different frequencies of the light and filter/sort them at the detection end.

you can look into transmitting FM and AM radio signals, which is established quite long ago. It is call FM modulation, or AM modulation, and you can find it in textbooks or wikipedia. However for practical purposes, I don't know how to do up the circuits.