Analog-to-Digital and Real-Time Clocks
13.1 Clocks and the Digital Revolution
Digits are a human invention; nature does not count or measure using numbers. We measure natural forces and phenomena using digital representations, but the forces and phenomena themselves are continuous. Time, pressure, voltage, current, temperature, humidity, gravitational attraction; all exist as continuous entities that we measure in volts, pounds, hours, amperes, or degrees, so as to better understand them and to be able to perform numerical calculations.
In this sense, natural phenomena occur in analog quantities. Sometimes they are digitized so as to facilitate measurements and manipulations. For example, a potentiometer in an electrical circuit allows ...
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