ultimate newie starting DIY-ing

[Eggbird]

Hi

I am an ultimate newie in the DIY of synths. I and a school mate are trying to 
build an analogue synth for a school project on which we should spend 80 hours 
of work.
To start we need some answeres to our questions:

1. What is the exact definition of an analogue synth?

2. On what physical/mathematical principle(s) is an analogue synth based?

3. What are the functions of the different parts in a synth? (oscilator, 
condensator, etc.) Mayby this question can be answered with a link to a 
usefull URL. I would not bother you with such elaborate questions.


That's it for this time,

hope I can reach your level of discussion (about hydrogen balloons for 
example!!)