Unit 1: Digital Information Assessment Prep

Lesson 3: How would you explain a number system to someone who had never seen numbers before?

I would say a number system is a set of patterns that are followed by a set of rules. These rules are in place so that you could replicate the set of patterns yourself, like an instruction sheet.

Lesson 5: Modern car odometers can record up to a million miles driven. What happens to the odometer reading when a car drives beyond its maximum reading?

When a car drives beyond its maximum reading, it doesn't still show the distance driven. Instead, it resets to 0.

Lesson 12: Many museums have digital catalogs of their collections. What are the potential benefits and harms of creating these digital catalogs?

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Lesson 13: Digital Information Why should we care about information being represented digitally? How does this impact you personally?

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Lesson 7: Your computer science teacher asks you to sample a black and white image that is 4" x 6". How would you sample the image to provide a good digital approximation using the pixelation widget? What sample size would you use? How would your decision affect the digital representation?

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Lesson 6: "The binary pattern 01000001 represents the number 65." Write a brief response explaining whether you believe this statement is always true. Explain your reasoning.

This statement is sometimes true. The binary pattern 01000001 can represent 65, but it can also represent the letter A.

Lesson 7: Assume your friend just sent you 32 bits of pixel data (just the 0s and 1s for black and white pixels) that were encoded after sampling an image. Choose the two statements that are true.

1. The correct width and height must be input into the pixelation widget to produce the image. 2.The fact that only 32 bits were used to represent the image indicates relatively large sample squares were used. The digital image may vary from the analog image significantly.

Lesson 11: How is a Creative Commons license different from a regular copyright?

Creative Commons is different from regular copyright because it allows other people to use your copyrighted work with the certain restrictions you put in place. On the other hand, regular copyright has heavy-duty protection in place so that other people cannot use your work at all without permission.

Lesson 7: Which of the following would result in a better digital approximation of an analog black and white image?

Decreasing the size of each sample square, thus increasing the number of samples taken.

Lesson 4: Each time we add another bit, what happens to the amount of numbers we can make?

Each time we add another bit, the amount of numbers we can make is doubled.

Lesson 11: As a reminder, in the warm-up we saw the this scenario: Imagine you were using some of our pixelation tools to create an image and you posted it online for your friends to see - but, a week later you find out someone took that image and put it on a T-shirt that they're selling for $10 each. Now that we understand Copyright, what would need to change in order for the scenario from the warm-up to be okay?

I would need to create a creative commons license that allows people to use my work and sell items with my work on them.

Lesson 9: An author is preparing to send their book to a publisher as an email attachment. The file on their computer is 1000 bytes. When they attach the file to their email, it shows as 750 bytes. The author gets very upset because they are concerned that part of their book has been deleted by the email address. If you could talk to this author, how would you explain what is happening to their book?

I would tell the author that the computer used lossless compression to compress the file size of their book. No data is lost and it can always be reconstructed back to the original. How this works is when there is a repeated word or phrase in the book, the computer will insert a symbol in its place to compress the data and make it smaller to send. This isn't noticeable since whoever opens the email will receive the entire book without any symbols.

Lesson 10: You've been given a new cell phone with a 2 gigabyte data plan. You plan to use your phone for text messages, images, video, and music. Which of these categories are best compressed using lossless compression? Which of these categories are best compressed using lossy compression? Why?

Images, videos, and music are best compressed using lossy compression because you can lose data without the human eye or ear noticing the changes. Text messages are best compressed using lossless compression because you can compress the data without losing any information that is in the message being sent.

Lesson 1: What are your own strategies and insights about how to learn best? And, how are they similar or different to the ones that you just heard about from other students?

In class, I use a notebook to write down notes of all the topics I don't understand. I study the notes in between classes and home for at least 1 - 2 hours a day. When I feel confident that I know the material, I ask a family member to assess me. If the assessment goes well, I then move on to a different topic to learn more. My strategy is similar to Sam. J's and Sofia P's. Sam takes notes on a piece of paper and reads them again at home as I do. Sofia also tries to assess herself to see if she remembers the material she's been reviewing.

Lesson 8: Which statement about analog and digital images is true?

Sampling an analog image more frequently produces a digital image with a better representation.

Lesson 8: Describe how the process of sampling, RGB pixels, and binary sequences work together to display a digital color image.

Sampling, RBG pixels and binary sequences work together to display a digital color image by letting the computer know where the RBG pixel is going to be placed and how dark or light that pixel will be. The combination of these parts is what gives you a digital color image.

Lesson 4: How many bits would be needed to count all of the students in class today?

Since I am working from home, only one bit would need to be used. However, if I were in a classroom setting, 5 bits would be used since 31 students are in the class.

Lesson 4: What are the similarities and differences between the binary and decimal systems?

The binary system uses two different digits (0 to 1) while the decimal system uses ten different digits (0 to 9). However, they are both the same in the fact that once you have used all possible digits, you can add on another digit just before the previous one used (Ex Binary System. 0, 1, 10, 11, 100, 101) (Ex Decimal System. 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13).

Lesson 9: What is the most important quality of lossless compression?

The data is transformed to usually make it smaller. It can always be re-constructed back to the original.

Lesson 5: When using bits to represent fractions of a number, can you create all possible fractions? Why or why not?

When using bits to represent fractions of a number, you cannot create all possible fractions. This is due to the fact that there are numbers that are too large or too small to be able to be represented.

Lesson 2: Recall when you built your information sending device. Why did we decide to send a message as a sequence of two options rather than modifying our devices to represent more options?

When we built our information sending device, we decided to send a message as a sequence of two options to represent a binary message. In binary messages, there cannot be any more than two options/variables. Because of this, we were limited to only using two options to send messages.