Hardware refers to the physical components of a computer that you can touch, such as the CPU, RAM, hard drive, keyboard, and monitor. Software, on the other hand, consists of programs and instructions that tell the hardware how to perform tasks. Examples of software include operating systems, applications, and utilities. While hardware provides the infrastructure for computing, software enables functionality and usability. Both are interdependent; without hardware, software cannot run, and without software, hardware cannot perform meaningful tasks. Together, they form a complete computing system.