Which is most accurate - analog or digital?

Digital is WAY more accurate. When was the last time you saw an analog computer? For analog to be accurate, it depends on the control of too many tiny factors (in order to make the analog signal perfectly correct). Digital just counts.

The difference is something like this. Digital: you count each gallon that is poured into a swimming pool. Count 3,529. Analog: you make a mark on the side of the pool at the water level and try to calculate backward how many gallons must be there.

Digital is more accurate by far.

I disagree with your reasoning. Most (if not all?) sensors rely on analog input which is subsequently converted into digital. The output from a microphone will inevitably loose information when being converted, although the digital signal is way less subject to degradation when transmitted.

@PerryDolia Also, many numbers will not be represented well digitally. Take 1/9 which equals 0,111.. The analog representation (1/9) is way more accurate than the digital version (0.111…). What I mean is that when something has to be represented digitally it may well loose something, considering that numbers are not infinite. The information in a wave signal is, however, depending on the resolution.

Analog is more accurate. Digital is more precise.

The distinction between accuracy and precision is very important in science—both are critical, for different reasons.

dangit, @cwilbur! you got there first!

The only distinction I’ll make is that digital has the potential to be more accurate. But with the dearth of lossy compression algorithms in rampant use, I think we’re a long way off from actually seeing it in practice as a normal thing.

Atomic.

It seems that the analog model is an illusion and only exists in mathematical theory, but not in the natural world around us. Everything below Planck length and Planck time loses meaning. So in a way all analog signals are in fact digital as well. Even the human brain is a digital organ.