Eli5: What is the real difference between analog and digital?

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I tried looking it up, and my brain just wasn’t making sense of it, but I haven’t had coffee yet so.

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An analog circuit uses the physical properties of electricity to do complicated stuff. For example, a capacitor takes time to charge up, and you can use this to create a timer. It’s like a Rube Goldberg machine but with electricity.

With a digital circuit, it’s all about maths, logic and calculations. Things don’t happen because of the cool properties of electricity, rather they happen because of the cool properties of transistors and how they can do maths. That way, your circuit is controlled by a program which needs to be written.

Basically digital uses logic, maths, and programs to get stuff done. Analog uses the physical properties of electricity, magnetism or even chemistry (like film photography).

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