Why FM is popular compared to the AM ______.

The correct option is 3

Concept:

In AM, the amplitude of the base signal is varied in order to create the radio wave and transmit information. This is problematic because all sorts of environmental noise (electrical appliances, atmospheric disturbances, etc.) can cause changes in amplitude. So an AM receiver cannot tell the difference between the part of the amplitude signal that is meant to be there (the actual broadcast) and the part that is noise. This results in lower quality sound reproduction, especially in urban environments.

On the other hand, FM modifies the frequency of the base signal to carry information. This frequency cannot be easily influenced by environmental conditions, leading to less noise and interference picked up during transmission. This results in a clearer, higher fidelity sound, which is particularly noticeable with music. This makes FM ideal for high-quality music broadcasting and is one of the reasons why FM has become more popular amongst broadcasters and consumers over AM especially for music stations.

To briefly touch on the other options:

1) FM is actually more complex to generate and detect compared to AM, requiring more sophisticated transmission and reception equipment. This makes Option 1 incorrect.

2) Similarly, FM transmission and reception require more complex equipment compared to AM, so Option 2 is also not right.

3) FM actually consumes more bandwidth than AM. One FM channel requires 200 kHz of bandwidth, while an AM channel usually only requires 10 kHz. So Option 4 is incorrect as well.