What Is Analog Computing?

In a world where digital technology rules, it's hard to imagine that computers once used gears and levers to solve problems. Analog computers were the first attempt at creating powerful computing devices. They were used for everything from calculating ballistics trajectories to predicting weather patterns. NASA even used them to do too tricky calculations for digital computers! What made analog computers so different? The answer is simple, they use physical means rather than electronic circuits to manipulate the results of digital technologies. In these early days, engineers were still figuring out how to make their machines work, so they started with gears and levers. Eventually, as logic gates and circuit boards were pioneered, analog computers fell into obscurity as digital computers took over as the dominant technology in computing. In the early days of computing, there were a couple of types of machines. One type was more like a modern computer but with physical parts. The other was more like an analog computer. It worked with mechanical processes and physical parts. An example of an early digital computer is Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine. It used punch cards to store data and calculate it through mechanical processes. The Jacquard loom was another example of an early digital computer. It used punched cards to control its operations and store data. Then, there were the Enigma machines that Germany used during World War II to encrypt messages sent by radio communication. These machines were designed to be unbreakable. They could only be broken by using mathematical formulas to crack their encryption codes. Analog computers they're not obsolete yet! While it's true that analog computers are primarily obsolete, a few efforts are still underway to research the use of analog computers in control systems and other specialized services. Some of the most popular video games out there today use a form of analog computer, the human brain! The human brain is an analog computer that can process information through complex chemical reactions. This is why humans can perform tasks such as playing video games so quickly and easily.