Digital vs. Analog Signals

Signals help us convey information of all types. A signal could be a smile to let someone know you’re happy, words to ask your teacher a question, an emergency signal like a fire alarm, or an online chat message to someone else playing a video game with you.

Colors occur along a continuous spectrum of visible light that is defined by wavelength and frequency. Our eyes can distinguish about 1 million different colors. So different hues of blue have slightly different wavelengths and frequencies.

A digital clock displays exact numbers that change at set times—for example, each second, minute, or hour. The hands on a non-digital clock move constantly and indicate time by how they align with the numbers around the clock face.

The friend is talking softly, there is lots of background noise, there is a barrier between you and the friend, and so on.

Sounds are made when something causes air to vibrate. To send a sound over a long distance, it has to be recorded or converted to another form of wave.

You assign symbols like letters, numbers, or shapes to represent the things you are encoding.

Analog signals are composed of a continuous range of values, where each point can have a slightly different value. Digital signals are made up of a series of digits that are either 0 or 1.

During the process of sampling, measurements are taken along the analog signal, and those measurements are converted to binary code (0s and 1s). The closer together the samples are, the more similar the digital signal is to the analog signal.

Ones tell the computer to turn on certain circuits, and zeroes tell the computer to turn off certain circuits. Through a string of millions of 1s and 0s, a computer program can carry out very complex tasks like running a video game.

Because the values in a digital signal must be either 0 or 1, the signal can easily be corrected to eliminate noise.

Because digital signals can be corrected to remove noise, the signals can be received clearly even after travelling a very long distance.

Analog would capture the full sound of the singer’s voice and might sound more like a live performance. Digital would provide cleaner sound with less interference, would be easier to store and share, and can even allow for the singer’s voice to be adjusted or improved.