Talk:Analogue computer

Analog computer or "Analogue computer"?
From Merriam-Webster:


 * "The word analogue entered English from French in the 19th century and ultimately traces back to the Greek word logos, meaning "ratio." (The word analogy, which has been a part of English since the 15th century, also descends from logos.) The noun analogue is sometimes spelled analog, particularly when it refers to a chemical compound that is structurally similar to another but slightly different in composition. Adding to the confusion, there is also an adjective spelled analog, which came into use in the 20th century. The adjective can refer to something that is analogous (as in an analog organ), but it is most often used to distinguish analog electronics from digital electronics (as in an analog computer or an analog clock)." (emphasis added)

From Encyclopædia Britannica:,


 * "Analog computer: any of a class of devices in which continuously variable physical quantities such as electrical potential, fluid pressure, or mechanical motion are represented in a way analogous to the corresponding quantities in the problem to be solved. The analog system is set up according to initial conditions and then allowed to change freely. Answers to the problem are obtained by measuring the variables in the analog model. See also digital computer."


 * "Analogue: in literature, a story for which there is a counterpart or another version in other literatures. Several of the stories in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales are versions of tales that can be found in such earlier sources as Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron and John Gower’s Confessio amantis. The French medieval beast fable Roman de Renart has analogues in several languages, including Flemish and German. The word is from the Greek análogon, 'to have a relationship' or 'proportional.' "

--Guy Macon (talk) 21:08, 21 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Guy, your usage note on the redirect page says "Analogue computer" would not be correct even in UK English. Usage stats disagree.  Dicklyon (talk) 15:44, 27 July 2020 (UTC)