An analog or analogue signal is any variable signal continuous in both time and amplitude. It differs from a digital signal in that small fluctuations in the signal are meaningful. Analog is usually thought of in an electrical context, however mechanical, pneumatic, hydraulic, and other systems may also convey analog signals.
An analog signal uses some property of the medium to convey the signal's information. For example, an aneroid barometer uses rotary position as the signal to convey pressure information. Electrically, the property most commonly used is voltage followed closely by frequency, current, and charge.
Any information may be conveyed by an analog signal, often such a signal is a measured response to changes in physical phenomena, such as sound, light, temperature, position, or pressure, and is achieved using a transducer.
For example, in an analog sound recording, the variation in pressure of a sound striking a microphone creates a corresponding variation in the voltage amplitude of a current passing through it. An increase in the volume of the sound causes the fluctuation of the current's voltage amplitude to increase while keeping the same rhythm.