Data storage and compression unit 3

Question 1

What is the smallest unit of data storage in computing?

Answer 1

A bit.

Question 2

How many bits are in a nibble and a byte?

Answer 2

Nibble = 4 bits, Byte = 8 bits

Question 3

What is the difference between kilobytes (kB) and kibibytes (KiB)?

Answer 3

1. kB = 1,000 bytes (decimal - 10³)
2. KiB = 1,024 bytes (binary - 2¹⁰)

Question 4

Name the binary data units (IEC standard) in order.

Answer 4

1. KiB (2¹⁰ = 1024 bytes)
2. MiB (2²⁰)
3. GiB (2³⁰)
4. TiB (2⁴⁰)

Question 5

Name the decimal data units (SI standard) in order.

Answer 5

1. kB (10³)
2. MB (10⁶)
3. GB (10⁹)
4. TB (10¹²)

Question 6

Why is data compression used?

Answer 6

To reduce file size for faster transmission and less storage space.

Question 7

What is lossy compression?

Answer 7

Compression where some data is permanently removed to reduce size (e.g. JPEG, MP3).

Question 8

What is lossless compression?

Answer 8

Compression where no data is lost, and the file can be restored exactly.

Question 9

Give one example of a lossless compression method.

Answer 9

Run-Length Encoding (RLE).

Question 10

How does Run-Length Encoding work?

Answer 10

It replaces repeated values with a single value and a count of how many times it repeats.

Question 11

How is file storage measured?

Answer 11

In bytes and its multiples like kB, MB, GB, TB or KiB, MiB, GiB, TiB.