Difference between electronic and digital

[jackson6612]

I have seen most people say electronic dictionary, diary etc. I often confuses the terms. Since long time I have referred to my handheld Franklin dictionary as digital dictionary. Am I wrong?

 

[berkeman]

I have seen most people say electronic dictionary, diary etc. I often confuses the terms. Since long time I have referred to my handheld Franklin dictionary as digital dictionary. Am I wrong?

Everybody is right in this case.

Your Franklin uses digital electronic circuitry. Digital and analog are the traditional two areas of electronics. Analog electronics deals with continuous waveforms, like for radio and TV circuits. However, many analog functions have been replaced with digital equivalents, for reasons of performance and cost.

For the most part, the circuitry in a computer or a Franklin is digital, with only a little bit of supporting analog circuitry (like in the power supply).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_electronics

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[ThomasEdison]

Lately where I see analog electronics the most are in sensors. This is because of the variablility of voltage amplitudes you get when sensing something using a transducer which produces electric signals from heat or pressure or light any number of effects to monitor.

A transducer is a term I rarely see mentioned anymore. It means a device to turn one form of energy into another. This happens in a lot in sensors. For example a photocell to detect light by turning it into an electronic signal.