▶ Interactive Lab

Positional Encoding Curves

Sinusoidal at different dimensions = different frequencies.

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Lower dim index = higher frequency. Higher dim index = lower frequency.

What you're seeing

Sinusoidal PE: PE[pos, 2i] = sin(pos / 10000^(2i/d)), PE[pos, 2i+1] = cos(pos / 10000^(2i/d)).

Each dimension uses a different frequency. Low i: changes fast (handles fine-grained position). High i: changes slowly (handles long-range coarse position).

★ KEY TAKEAWAY
Sinusoidal PE uses different frequencies per dimension: low dims oscillate fast (fine position), high dims slow (coarse position).
▶ WHAT TO TRY
  • Add more dimension indices to dimensions to see multiple frequencies at once.
  • Compare dim 0 (fastest) with dim d-1 (slowest).
  • RoPE uses the same per-dim frequencies, but rotates Q/K instead of adding.