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Physics Lesson 17.1.2 - Analogue and Digital Signals
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Welcome to our Physics lesson on Analogue and Digital Signals, this is the second lesson of our suite of physics lessons covering the topic of Electronic Essentials: Analogue and Digital Signals, Binary Operations and Logic Gates, you can find links to the other lessons within this tutorial and access additional physics learning resources below this lesson.
Analogue and Digital Signals
In tutorial 16.14 "Alternating Current. LC Circuits", we have explained that the current we get from the power source (AC) is sinusoidal, i.e. it changes in a sinusoidal fashion. Likewise, sound waves can be expressed as sinusoidal waves as well. Therefore, the audio system we mentioned earlier, [i.e. normal sound → input device (microphone) → processor (amplifier) → output device (loudspeaker) → louder sound] is made entirely from sinusoidal signals, which we call analogue.
On the other hand, there are electronic systems, which operate by combining only two types of signals: HIGH and LOW (ON and OFF). These are known as digital signals. In other words, in digital systems there is a fixed number of known inputs and outputs which are combined together to give a certain result.
The difference between analogue and digital signals is shown in the figure below.
Digital signals are produced when there are only two possible input voltages: 0V (LOW) and 5V (HIGH). Symbolically, the LOW voltage is denoted as 0 and the HIGH voltage is denoted by 1. This is just for convenience, i.e. to make these values appear easier on the screen. If we consider only one of these signals (one 0 or 1), this represents a bit (binary digit).
For example, if you see on the screen the number 10110010, you may think it as the scheme below. 
Any combination of 8 bits as in the above example, represents one Byte. In other words, 1 Byte represents the number obtained by the combination of 8 different input signals (either 0V or 5V input voltages).
You have reached the end of Physics lesson 17.1.2 Analogue and Digital Signals. There are 5 lessons in this physics tutorial covering Electronic Essentials: Analogue and Digital Signals, Binary Operations and Logic Gates, you can access all the lessons from this tutorial below.
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