What are the two ways information can be represented?
Analog or digital
What is analog data?
It is a continuous representation, analogous to the actual information it represents
What is continuous data?
Data that can take on any value within a certain range, it can be measured
What is digital data?
It is a discrete representation that breaks up the information into separate elements
Computers cannot work with analog information directly so it needs to digitise the analog information
It does this by breaking up the analog information into pieces and represents those using binary
What is discrete data?
Data that can only take on specific values and cannot be measured on a continuous scale, it is counted
Why digital data?
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Analog and digital data both degrade as they move down a line because the voltage of the signal fluctuates due to environmental effects
Analog signals will be lost as soon as it begins to degrade, but digital signals will only lose data until it degrades to a certain extent because they jump sharply between two extremes
Information can still be retrieved from a relatively degraded digital signal
Periodically, digital signals will be relocked to regain its original shape, and if it relocks before too much degration no information will be lost
