Editing Discrete system (section)

{{Short description|System with a  countable number of states}}In  [[theoretical computer science]], a '''discrete system''' is a system with a [[countable]] number of [[State (computer science)|state]]s. Discrete systems may be contrasted with continuous systems, which may also be called [[Analog device|analog]] systems. A final discrete system is often modeled with a directed [[Graph (discrete mathematics)|graph]] and is analyzed for correctness and [[Computational complexity|complexity]] according to [[computational theory]]. Because discrete systems have a countable number of states, they may be described in precise [[mathematical models]].

A [[computer]] is a [[finite-state machine]] that may be viewed as a discrete system. Because computers are often used to model not only other discrete systems but continuous systems as well, methods have been developed to represent real-world continuous systems as discrete systems. One such method involves [[Sampling (signal processing)|sampling]] a continuous signal at [[discrete time]] intervals.