Analog signal
hideAn Analog or analogue signal is any continuous signal for which the time varying feature (variable) of the signal is a representation of some other time varying quantity, i.e analogous to another time varying signal. It differs from a digital signal in that small fluctuations in the signal are meaningful. Analog is usually thought of in an electrical context; however, mechanical, pneumatic, hydraulic, and other systems may also convey analog signals.
An analog signal uses some property of the medium to convey the signal's information. For example, an aneroid barometer uses rotary position as the signal to convey pressure information. Electrically, the property most commonly used is voltage followed closely by frequency, current, and charge.
Any information may be conveyed by an analog signal; often such a signal is a measured response to changes in physical phenomena, such as sound, light, temperature, position, or pressure, and is achieved using a transducer.
For example, in sound recording, fluctuations in air pressure (that is to say, sound) strike the diaphragm of a microphone which causes corresponding fluctuations in a voltage or the current in an electric circuit. The voltage or the current is said to be an "analog" of the sound.
Any measured analog signal must theoretically have noise and a finite slew rate. Therefore, both analog and digital systems are subject to limitations in resolution and bandwidth. In practice, as analog systems become more complex, effects such as non-linearity and noise ultimately degrade analog resolution to such extent that the performance of digital systems may surpass it. In analog systems, it is difficult to detect when such degradation occurs. However, in digital systems, degradation can not only be detected but corrected as well.
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News tagged with analog signals
700,000 callers phone digital TV hot line
Jun 13, 2009 |
2.7 / 5 (3) |
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(AP) -- Nearly 700,000 calls were received by a federal hot line this week from people confused about the nationwide switch from analog to digital TV broadcasts that occurred Friday.
Digital TV likes clear signal path
Dec 31, 2008 |
1.3 / 5 (3) |
1
Question: If I buy a new digital TV, can I just plug it in and use it, as I do the old TV now? My son insists that it has to be hooked to an antenna, but the old televisions worked fine without one.
Search results for analog signals
New silicon-germanium nanowires could lead to smaller, more powerful electronic devices
12 hours ago |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Microchip manufacturers have long faced challenges miniaturizing transistors, the key active components in nearly every modern electronic device, which are used to amplify or switch electronic signals.
New clues emerge for understanding morphine addiction
14 hours ago |
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Scientists are adding additional brush strokes to the revolutionary new image now emerging for star-shaped cells called astrocytes in the brain and spinal cord. Their report, which suggests a key role for ...
Scientists discover first evidence of brain rewiring in children
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
14 hours ago |
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Carnegie Mellon University scientists Timothy Keller and Marcel Just have uncovered the first evidence that intensive instruction to improve reading skills in young children causes the brain to physically ...
Better-than-new LIDAR provides 24/7 atmospheric aerosol data
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 08, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers from eight institutions led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has solved a software and hardware problem that had perplexed scientists studying atmospheric aerosols ...
One Can Act Without Group Support; Even in the Bacterial World
Dec 08, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A single bacterium can act alone, performing the same kinds of actions that a group normally does. The behavior of that bacterium can be manipulated at the cellular level. That’s the intriguing ...
A special kind of flight training
Dec 08, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new generation of flight simulators will attempt to make air traffic safer.
Life after silicon: Using exotic materials to help microchips keep improving
Dec 08, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The huge increases in the power and capacity of computers, cell phones and communications networks in the last 40 years have been the result of ever-shrinking silicon transistors. But silicon ...
Gene therapy and stem cells save limb
Dec 08, 2009 |
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Blood vessel blockage, a common condition in old age or diabetes, leads to low blood flow and results in low oxygen, which can kill cells and tissues. Such blockages can require amputation resulting in loss of limbs. Now, ...
NASA Global Precipitation Measurement Mission Passes Major Review
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 08, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's effort to deploy the first satellite mission to advance global precipitation observations from space moved closer to this goal when agency officials approved critical elements for the Global Precipitation ...
Why King Kong failed to impress
Dec 08, 2009 |
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Humans have the same receptors for detecting odors related to sex as do other apes and primates. But each species uses them in different ways, stemming from the way the genes for these receptors have evolved over time, according ...
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