Module 2 - Unit 1 - Using Data Types and Units

Question 1

What is the notational system in computing?

Answer 1

Notational system is one used to represent different quantities or characters. Notational systems used to represent values and quantities include decimal, binary and hexadecimal.

Question 2

What is the decimal notation?

Answer 2

Decimal is based on the principle of expressing ten different numbers using a single digit in the range of 0 to 9. It is our day-to-day numbering system.

Question 3

How would you explain place value?

Answer 3

Place value is the value of what a digit holds in an array of digit (numbers) based on the position that it is in. The rightmost value of the digit is the smallest and increases in value as it goes left. In decimal, the same digit on the left is ten times more to its right.

Question 4

What is the binary notation?

Answer 4

Binary is a numbering system where each single digit can express only two values, in the range 0 to 1. The place value of each digit is two times more as it goes left.

Question 5

What is the hexadecimal notation?

Answer 5

The hex notation system enables you to express 16 different numbers using a single digit in the range of 0-9 and A-F. A is 10, B is 11, C is 12, D is 13, E is 14, F is 15. Every 16 digit, the count in the array of digit increases by 1.

Question 6

How to convert binary to decimal?

Answer 6

Each digit in an array of 1s and 0s has a value 2 times more than the right starting from the rightmost digit ‘1’. To get 1, the base 2 is powered by a 0 such that 2**0 = 1.

For example, in a array of 5 digits,

24, 23, 22, 21, 2**0 = 16, 8, 4, 2, 1

If all is 1 such that 11111, then the value in decimal is 31 by adding all the numbers; otherwise if it is all 0, then the value would be 0. If it is 11000, then the value will be 24.

Question 7

How to convert hexadecimal to decimal?

Answer 7

Each digit in an array of 1s and 0s has a value 16 times more than the right starting from the rightmost digit ‘1’. To get 1, the base 16 is powered by a 0 such that 16**0 = 1.

For example, in a array of 5 digits,

164, 163, 162, 161, 16**0 = 65536, 4096, 256, 16, 1

If all is 1 such that , then the value in decimal is 69905 by adding all the numbers; otherwise if it is all 0, then the value would be 0. If it is 11000, then the value will be 69632.

Question 8

How to convert a decimal to a binary?

Answer 8

1) Divide the number by 2
2) Get the integer quotient for the next iteration
3) Convert the remainder digit to a binary digit
4) Repeat until the number becomes zero

Example,

To convert 31 to binary:

42/2: quotient=21, remainder=0, bit=0
21/2: quotient=10, remainder=1, bit=1
10/2: quotient=5, remainder=0, bit=0
5/2: quotient=2, remainder=1, bit=1
2/2: quotient=1, remainder=0, bit=0
1/2: quotient=0, remainder=1, bit=1

Hence the binary number (from the bottom up) is:
(101010)2

Question 9

How to convert a decimal to a hexadecimal?

Answer 9

1) Divide the number by 16
2) Get the integer quotient for the next iteration
3) Convert the remainder digit to a hex digit
4) Repeat until the quotient becomes zero

Example,

To convert 1234 to hexadecimal:

1234/16: quotient=77, remainder=2, hex=2
77/16: quotient=4, remainder=13, hex=D
4/16: quotient=0, remainder=4, hex=4

Hence the hexadecimal number (from the bottom up) is: (4D2)16

Question 10

What measuring unit do you use to measure computer data in its smallest form?

Answer 10

Bit, a.k.a binary.

Question 11

How large is a byte?

Answer 11

8 bits.

Question 12

What is the size of Kilo, Mega, Giga, Tera and Peta?

Answer 12

Kilo = 1000 or 10^3
Mega = 1,000,000 or 10^6
Giga = 1,000,000,000 or 10^9
Tera = 1,000,000,000,000 or 10^12
Peta = 1,000,000,000,000,000 or 10^15

Question 13

What is the more accurate notation to describe bytes in binary terms?

Answer 13

Kibi = 1024 or 2^10
Mebi = 1,048,576 or 2^20
Gibi = 1,073,741,824 or 2^30
Tebi = 1,009,511,627,776 or 2^40
Pebi = 1,125,899,906,842,624 or 2^50

Question 14

What is a throughput rate?

Answer 14

It measures in bits the rate at which data transfers between computers or in the computer. It is always base 10 and can be expressed in bytes.

Question 15

How is computer speed measured?

Answer 15

It is measured in hertz, describing the number of instruction cycles the processor can perform in a second

Question 16

What are the common data types?

Answer 16

i) Integer,
ii) floating number,
iii) boolean values,
iv) characters,
v) strings

Question 17

How do computers represent letters, symbols or numbers?

Answer 17

Computer uses an organization method called a character set, where each letter or symbol is represented by bits. These bits are usually referred to in decimals for it to be readable.

Question 18

ASCII character set

Answer 18

Design in 1963, it stands for “American Standard Code for Information Interchange”, each character is represented by a seven bit binary number.

Question 19

Unicode character set

Answer 19

Design in the late 80s, it purpose is to create a universal character set. It comprises of:

i) a set of code charts that handle visual reference
ii) a data encoding method
iii) a set of standard character encodings
iv) a set of reference data files
v) character properties
vi) rules to handle normalization, rendering, display order

Question 20

Information security control

Answer 20

A mechanism designed to protect an information asset or processing system. It ensures that data is contained within the information processing system and is only accessible with authorization

Question 21

What are the number of ways security control can be implemented?

Answer 21

i) Backup
ii) Access Control - Permissions, usage restrictions, data encryption, firewall
iii) High availability: Having access during failures, fault tolerant

Question 22

Intellectual Property

Answer 22

A valuable information asset that an organization owns

Question 23

Copyright

Answer 23

An automatic legal protection granted to certain types of work indicating that the copyright holder owns the right to control the use of the work, including rights of publication, distribution, or sale.

Question 24

Trademark

Answer 24

As copyright is not given tot he selection of a name, if a company wants to promote its goods it will normally trademark its name and/or logo. A trademark must be distinctive within the industry in which the company is selling goods and services.

Question 25

Patent

Answer 25

A legal protection for some kind of invention. Unlike copyright, a patent can apply to an idea so long as the idea is original (or novel), useful, and distinctive or non-trivial.

It can be a complex matter as different countries have different standards for accepting patents, and they are registered for a limited time only.

Question 26

What is Data?

Answer 26

Data is the raw values collected by the system. The system must have some way of tagging or normalizing these values, similar to the way that data is defined with different types, so that they can be used for comparisons.

Question 27

What is information?

Answer 27

Information is some level of summarization of the individual data points

Question 28

What are insights?

Answer 28

Insights are things that inform meaningful business decisions

Question 29

How to obtain data?

Answer 29

Via data capture and collection

Question 30

How to obtain information from data?

Answer 30

Via data correlation, a method where connections and links between data points is found

Question 31

How to produce insights from information?

Answer 31

Via meaningful reporting, information is presented in a way where humans can analyze and interpret

Question 32

Which notation system supports presenting the largest numbers using the fewest digits: Binary, Decimal and hexadecimal?

Answer 32

Hexadecimal. Each hex digit can store 16 bits of information. A single decimal digit stores 4 bits while binary obviously stores 1 bit.

Question 33

`What is the decimal number 75 in binary and hexadecimal?

Answer 33

0100 1011 in binary and 4B in hex. Hex notation is often indicated using 0x to precede the hex digits, so you may see this written like 0x4b. to work out the answer without a calculator, write out the place values for each notation system. Fo binary you’d have columns for 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2 and 1 and put a 1 in each column you need to add up to 75 and a 0 in the others. For hex you only need 16 and 1 (75 divided by 16 is 4 remainder 11, which is represented as “B” in hex).

Question 34

Which data type provides for whole numbers only?

Answer 34

Integer.

Question 35

What is the difference between the char and string data types?

Answer 35

Char stores a single textual character in a fixed length field (typically 1 byte). A string is a variable length field for storing a sequence of characters.

Question 36

What type of legal protection could be obtained for a novel software algorithm?

Answer 36

Patent provides the best protection as it can enforce ownership even if someone tries to write the algorithm in a slightly different way. Software code is often protected both by patent and by copyright however.

Question 37

What data protection technology could you implement in order to restrict the type of activity that users could employ on digital products that they have purchase or rented?

Answer 37

Digital Rights Management (DRM).

Question 38

What part of the process of data analytics is most closely supported by meaningful reporting?

Answer 38

Insights are the “end product” of the analytic process. Humans need a suitable reporting format to make best use of insights.