What makes a classical guitar

Is there a difference between a Classical and Acoustic Guitar? I've never really thought about it until about 2 years ago. I'm mostly into heavy metal and electric guitars, but really enjoy acoustic ballads as well. I know that a lot of my heroes are very fluent in classical style playing, but I assumed they just played on acoustic guitars. I've been seeing people mention "classical" guitars though, so I'm wondering.

The biggest difference between a classical guitar and what everyone considers a typical acoustic is the strings; a classical uses nylon strings while an acoustic has steel strings more similar to electric guitars. Steel strings acoustics are by far more popular, but it's a preference thing. Each have their own individual characteristics.

The nylon strings not only give a "warmer" tone than the "brighter" steel strings, but they're easier to fret as well.

Another difference is that classical guitars have wider fret-boards that separate the strings a bit more; this is supposed to ease the fretting of cramped multi-finger chord shapes, scale-runs, and facilitate the finger-picking techniques of classical and flamenco.

I think you pretty much summed it up Shackleford! I'm not a big fan of acoustic guitars, but I much prefer the feel and tone of regular acoustic guitars, which can be used just as well to play classical music.