CSP- Digital Information, Internet and Algorithms

Audacity is an open source audio editing application that provides a variety of effects that you can apply to audio files. Which of these effects sounds like a lossy operation?

Equalization: Adjusts the volume levels of particular frequencies.

A programmer wants to present their idea for an algorithm at a company meeting. They're debating whether to express the algorithm in flow charts, pseudocode, or a programming language. Which of these is a good argument for expressing the algorithm in a flow chart at the company meeting?

Flow charts can require less technical knowledge to understand than pseudocode or programming languages.

Huang loves retro songs and discovers a website with audio recordings of many old songs. He's also an animator, so he is inspired to make a video channel with animated music videos for retro songs. Assuming US copyright laws, is Huang allowed to use audio recordings of retro songs for his music videos?

He can use the audio recordings if they are explicitly licensed for re-use, like with a Creative Commons license, and he follows the conditions of that license.

Eino is composing a short film about climate change which he plans to display at a science museum and on their public YouTube channel. He searches a video streaming website and finds a video clip with a time lapse of melting ice caps that would be perfect for the film. Assuming US copyright laws, is Eino allowed to use the video clip for his film?

He can use the video clip if it is explicitly licensed for re-use, like with a Creative Commons license, and he follows the conditions of that license.

Tom is recording an album of songs using a digital audio recording application, and he wants the recordings to be high quality. Which advice will best help him to achieve his goal?

He should save the audio using a lossless compression algorithm.

Which of the following is a single byte of digital information? a) 1011011 b)10100101 c)10110 d)1011

b) 10100101

A programmer is writing the code for a sports website that will use a variety of data sources. They want to understand which data sources are analog so that they can think carefully about the process of converting the analog data into digital data. Which of these data sources is analog?

A swimmer's position in the pool as they swim from one end to the other

You're visiting a Computer Science building at a college, and they've decided it'd be fun to display all the room numbers in binary. You're going to room 13. What binary number should you look for on the door?

1101

Your classmate constructs a simple computer that adds numbers. There are 5 wires for inputting the first number, and the wires are currently "on", "on", "off, "on", "off", or 11010 in binary. What decimal number does that represent?

26

101111111101000111111101 How many bytes long is that sequence of bits?

3

How many bits are in 4 bytes?

32

What's the least number of bits that you'll need to represent the current minute (0-59) in binary?

6

Compression algorithms vary in how much they can reduce the size of a document. Which of the following would likely be the hardest to compress?

A document of randomly generated letters

A scientist is researching the effects of magnesium supplements on depression, and is considering whether to publish the research in a conventional journal or in an open access journal. In terms of access, who would benefit the least from the decision to publish in an open access journal?

A researcher at a top-tier university

The United States Postal Service (USPS) delivers nearly 200 million pieces of mail every day. Their website and internal operations are powered by many algorithms. Which algorithm's runtime is most likely to be improved by the use of a heuristic?

Calculating an efficient route for a delivery carrier through a city, considering factors like parking space and mail volume

A musician decides to make a digital recording of their concert so that they can share it with fans that cannot attend the concert in person. What is true about the process of converting the concert's audio waves into a digital recording?

If the recording equipment uses a very small sampling interval, the digital recording will be a very good representation but will not contain every detail.

In 2015, the nation of Burundi had an average bandwidth per Internet connection of 11.24 kb/s. In 2016, their average bandwidth was 6.91 kb/s. Which statement is true based on those statistics?

Internet connections in Burundi in 2015 were able to transfer more bits per second than connections in Burundi in 2016.

An environmental engineer is researching a new kind of biodegradable plastic and finds exciting results for the rate of decomposition. The engineer wants to make sure that their findings will be available to a diverse audience. Their hope is that journalists, professionals from other industries, and future environmental engineers will be able to to read them. Which type of publication would best support the engineer's goals?

Open access journal for environmental engineers

A startup is developing a new web browser with a focus on accessibility for visually impaired users. The startup founder is considering the benefits and drawbacks of releasing the code online under an open source license. What would be a consequence of releasing the code with an open source license?

Other companies and individuals would be able to view and use the code according to the conditions of the open source license.

A data scientist develops an algorithm for analyzing social media data. They're writing a blog post about it, and are hoping that other data scientists will try out the algorithm on their own data. They're debating whether to express the algorithm in natural language, flow charts, pseudocode, or Python, a general-purpose programming language. Which of these is a good argument for expressing the algorithm in Python?

Python can be run on any computer that has a Python interpreter, so others can try out the algorithm with their own data and not worry about translating the algorithm correctly to a language.

Nora is learning to use image editing applications and doesn't understand when to lower the quality setting for JPEG saving. What's a good use case for using a lower quality setting?

Save a link to a bigger and better quality screen

Karla is making a website about the fluffiest dogs. She discovers this photo of a dog on a social media account: Assuming US copyright laws, is Karla allowed to use the photo on her website?

She can use the photo if it is explicitly licensed for re-use, like with a Creative Commons license, and she follows the conditions of that license.

Which of these data sources is analog?

The altitude of a bird as it flies through the sky

What is true about the process of converting analog data into digital data?

The digital version is a representation of the analog data but cannot include all of the details.

Ms. O'Keefe is a high school computer science teacher that is developing robotics projects for her class and publishing them online. She wants other teachers to be able to use and adapt the projects for their classrooms, but she doesn't want companies to be able to sell the project plans for a profit. What approach will allow other teachers to use the projects but not allow companies to make a profit off them?

The teacher should write "This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial license."

A 5 year old visits the Computer History Museum and gets excited about everything computers can do. They ask their mother, "Mom, can computers solve every problem?" Which response is the most accurate?

There are some problems a computer can't solve, no matter how much time they have.

Which of these data sources is analog?

Thirty seconds of sounds from a thunderstorm in Miami, Florida

Consider these two files: A still screenshot of the Apple homepage A 5-second video of the same Apple homepage Is it possible for the video to take up less space than the image?

Yes, if the video is compressed with a lossy compression algorithm.

Which of these lists correctly orders the binary numbers from smallest to largest? a) 0011, 0101, 0110, 1010 b) 0011, 0110, 0101, 1010 c) 1010, 0101, 0110, 0011 d) 1010, 0110, 0101, 0011

a) 0011, 0101, 0110, 1010

Which of these is the best description of analog data?

Data that changes smoothly over time.