Monday, July 18, 2011

Digital v Analog

Analog: A tree has a rope tied to it on one end swinging back and forth by a person on the other end is an example of an 'analog' system. The rope, when shaken, creates waves that travel down the length of the rope until it hits the tree. Depending on how hard you shake the waves, the stronger or weaker the frequency is. Shake them side to side you see horizontal waves and vice if shaken up and down. In all cases, no matter which way the rope is moving waves are created.
Analog systems have a value that changes steadily over time with an infinite set of values in a range. Using the rope and tree example we see a continuous value in the range. If you placed a measuring stick at a point along the rope and then measure the strings height from the floor every second at that point. when you watch the string move, you will see it moves constantly. There is no discreteness detected as seen in digital media.

Digital: Digital media would be more like turning on and off a computer switch. There is no in between values that are seen analogically. The computer switch example uses the computer screen as our transmitter, the transmission media( a physical system used to carry a communication signal from one system to another) is the space between the screen and my eyes, and the receiver of the signal is my eye. Lastly, digital mediums use binary code, which uses the numbers 1 and 0.


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