Hartley argued that the maximum number of distinguishable pulse levels that can be transmitted and received reliably over a communications channel is limited by the dynamic range of the signal amplitude and the precision with which the receiver can distinguish amplitude levels. Specifically, if the amplitude of the transmitted signal is restricted to the range of [−A ... +A] volts, and the precision of the receiver is ±ΔV volts, then the maximum number of distinct pulses M is given by