Digital vs. AnalogÂ
About
Digital and analog
Throughout history, the conversion from analog to digital has helped us advance in technology in many ways. For example, converting technologies to digital has helped us make measurement devices more accurate by converting continuous signals that can produce noise to discrete signals. These discrete signals help give more clear outputs.
Digital
What does it mean to be digital?
When something is digital, it means that there are discrete values that can be used to create nearly infinite combinations or outputs. Essentially, a finite number of symbols is arranged in different ways to create infinite responses.
Examples of Digital
1. Binary codeÂ
2. Punch cardsÂ
3. Neurons
4. Words
5. Hieroglyphics
Analog
What does it mean to be analog?
Analog refers to something that is more like a scale or a gradient as opposed to discrete values that make up a response.
Examples of analogÂ
 1. Radios
2. Meters with needles
3. Coordinate functions
4. Old telephone
Which Is Better? Digital or Analog?
Most people may think of analog as “old-school” or outdated technology, however that couldn’t be further from the truth. Although digitization of technology has no doubt brought along significant advances, it does come with tradeoffs that people need to weight out before choosing whether to make something digital or analog.Â
Digital
Pros
- Less affected by interference/removes most noise
- Easy to store and duplicate data
- Able to be processed by computers
- Can have precise, repeatable data
Cons
- Needs to be converted back to analog for humans to comprehend (DAC)
- If bit size is too low/not enough computing power, will have low resolution
Analog
ProsÂ
- Continuous data/no discrete values (gradient-like)Â
- High resolutionÂ
- Can function with less/no computing power
Cons
- Difficult to duplicate and store
- More noise/interference occurs
- Cannot be processed by computers (need ADC)