Which statement best describes a sampler?

Which statement best describes a sampler?

• A. A It samples the analog signal at a given rate, producing samples at discrete times
• B. B It quantizes the amplitude to a finite set
• C. C It reconstructs the analog signal from samples
• D. D It encodes the samples into a digital word

Answer: (A)

Taking measurements of a continuous-time signal at regular time instants to produce a sequence of samples. The sampler records the signal values at specific times determined by the sampling rate, creating a discrete-time sequence x[n] = x_c(nT_s). It doesn’t change the amplitude or convert to digital bits—that's done in later steps like quantization and encoding, and reconstruction uses those samples to approximate the original analog signal. So the defining idea is capturing the analog signal at a chosen rate and at discrete time moments, which is exactly what the statement describes.