Analog computer

A form of computer using electronic or mechanical phenomena to model the problem being solved by using one kind of physical quantity to represent another.

Used in distinction to [digital computer]?s, in which physical or mechanical phenomena are used to construct a [finite-state machine]? which is then used to model the problem being solved.

Unlike digital computers, an analog computer does not have generalized computing power (see Church-Turing thesis) and is only useful for the problem it is configured to solve.

Examples of analog computers:

• Tide predictors
• Mechanical integrators
• Target predictors
• Hydraulic model of UK economy
• and (trivially) the slide rule