Analog vs. Digital Storage



Pictures, sound, and video can be stored in an analog way or a digital way.

An
analog signal is continuous and smooth, like the grooves of a record player:



To store something digitally, a computer makes a graph that is close to the signal, and stores the numbers only--as on a CD.



These images are the property of www.howstuffworks.com, and were accessed from that site on September 5th, 2004.