I’m pretty sure that that analog signals is just a continuous stream of input versus digital which provides signals at discrete time steps. Why have we shifted from analog to digital for so many things? Wouldn’t a steady stream of information be of better use?
In: Technology
For an ELI5, analog is like writing an essay, digital is like multiple choice.
Essays can give a much richer and deeper exploration into a single subject. But it is hard to switch context or explore multiple subjects in one essay.
Multiple choice is easy to context switch and is easier to mark. So with multiple short questions, one can switch subjects or areas within a subject easily.
Same with electronics – analog has to be fine tuned to that application. It can be done but once tuned, it isn’t very flexible. Analog systems are hard to build if they have to accept a wide variety of signals.
Digital is usually based on binary logic. Logic is easily chained, “stacked” or layered. So very complex structures and functionality can be built that can deal with many sources of input and be fairly easily upgraded and changed.
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