analogue

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1. Something that bears an analogy to something else: Surimi is marketed as an analogue of crabmeat.
2. Biology. An organ or structure that is similar in function to one in another kind of organism but is of dissimilar evolutionary origin.
3. Chemistry. A structural derivative of a parent compound that often differs from it by a single element.

1. often analog Of, relating to, or being a device in which data are represented by continuously variable, measurable, physical quantities, such as length, width, voltage, or pressure.
2. often analog Computer Science. Of or relating to an analog computer.

[French, analogous, analogue, from Medieval Latin analogus, from Greek analogos, proportionate. See analogous.]

A representation of an object that resembles the original. Analog devices monitor conditions, such as movement, temperature and sound, and convert them into analogous electronic or mechanical patterns. For example, an analog watch represents the planet's rotation with the rotating hands on the watch face. Telephones turn voice vibrations into electrical vibrations of the same shape. Analog implies a continuous signal in contrast with digital, which breaks everything into numbers. Video cameras scan their viewing area a line at a time and convert the infinitely varying intensities of red, green and blue (RGB) light into analogous electrical signals. See sampling.

Advantages/Disadvantages of Analog Recording

Audio and video transmission has been analog since the beginning of radio and TV and the first magnetic recording. While the industry is increasingly digital, analog is still widely used in both commercial and home environments (audio cassettes, VHS tapes, commercial video, radio and TV broadcasting).

The ability to capture the subtle nature of the real world is the single advantage of analog techniques. It takes ever increasing digital capacities and bandwidth to match the granularity of analog systems.

Digital Means Perfect Replication

Once recorded, analog equipment, no matter how modern, cannot copy signals perfectly. Third and fourth generations of analog audio and video recordings show marked deterioration.

By recording in digital from the beginning, or by converting from analog to digital at an early stage, audio and video data can be preserved indefinitely and copied over and over without deterioration. This fact has caused publishers of digital media much anguish (see copyright, DRM and peer-to-peer network) and has always been a problem for software publishers since the first computer programs were made available for sale.

Analog Concepts

Analog Radio

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noun

Something closely resembling or analogous to something else: congener, correlate, correlative, correspondent, counterpart, match, parallel. See same/different/compare.

A drug that differs in minor aspects of molecular structure from its parent drug. Analogues may be synthesized so that they have more potent effects, less side effects, or are more difficult to detect than the parent drug.

Dansk (Danish)
n. - analog, parallel, sidestykke
adj. - analog

Nederlands (Dutch)
iets analoogs, echt smakend/lijkend synthetische etenswaar

Français (French)
n. - analogue, analogie
adj. - analogique, par analogie

Deutsch (German)
n. - Entsprechung
adj. - entsprechend, ähnlich

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ανάλογο ή αντίστοιχο δεδομένο, αναλογική διάταξη, (βιολ.) όργανο ανάλογης λειτουργίας, αλλά διαφορετικής υφής, συνθετική τροφή

Italiano (Italian)
analogia

Português (Portuguese)
n. - análogo (Quím.)

Русский (Russian)
аналог

Español (Spanish)
n. - palabra o cosa análoga
adj. - análogo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - motsvarighet

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
相似物, 类似物, 类似情况, 同源词, 模拟指针式的, 相似物的, 模拟计算机的, 类似的

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 相似物, 類似物, 類似情況, 同源詞
adj. - 模擬指標式的, 相似物的, 模擬電腦的, 類似的

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 유사물, 상사기관
adj. - 유사한, 상사기관의

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 類似物

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮דבר מקביל, דבר דומה‬
adj. - ‮של שימוש בסימנים המיוצגים ע"י כמות משתנה רצופה כמיקום במרחב וכו', מראה את הזמן ע"י מחוגים ולא ע"י תצוגה סיפרתית (שעון), אנלוגי‬

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