it computer science 1
Read the attached instruction before a answering the question
Question 1 (30 marks)
This question allows you to demonstrate your ability to carry out calculations such as those introduced in Block 3 Parts 1 and 2 and the Using Numbers (maths) booklet.
In each case you should demonstrate how you worked out your answer, as well as giving the answer. You must show your working to gain full marks. In each case about half of the marks awarded are for a clear explanation of your working.
- a.You saw in Part 1 of Block 3 that frequency is the number of cycles per second and period is the duration of a cycle.
- i.If a sine wave completes one cycle in 5µs, how many cycles are completed in 1 second?
- ii.Give your answer in scientific notation.
(5 marks)
- b.Convert the following hexadecimal MAC address to binary form (as shown in the ‘Using Numbers (maths)’ booklet): AB-34-E5-F0-28-CA (9 marks)
- c.Convert the following binary IP address to dotted decimal form (as shown in Block 3 Part 2): 00001010.01100011.01011000.01001101(8 marks)
- d.How many possible host addresses are available for:
- i.an IPv6 address?
- ii.an IPv4 address where the first octet is reserved for network addresses? Express your final answer in scientific notation to four significant figures.
(8 marks)
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Question 2 (30 marks)
- a.
- i. Explain how an ad hoc wireless area network differs from an infrastructure wireless area network. The maximum word limit for Question 2a (i) is 75 words.(5 marks)
- ii. What characteristics of ad hoc networks in general, and Zigbee specifically, make this sort of network especially suitable for home automation, particularly where some devices on the network might be battery powered? The maximum word limit for Question 2a (ii) is 100 words.(5 marks)
- b.
- i. At 100m from the antenna of a cellular base station in open country, measurements show that the power per square metre is 400µW/m2. What power per square metre could be expected at 200m from the base station? Show your working and explain any assumptions you make. (5 marks)
- ii .A base station is located in an urban environment, and the power per square metre at 100m is measured to be 4µW/m2. What would be a reasonable value to expect at 200m? (You will have to make an assumption to calculate your answer. State the assumption you make.) (5 marks)
- iii. In parts (i) and (ii) of this question you looked at signal attenuation caused by increasing distance from a base station, and also by environmental factors. Briefly explain the problem that signal attenuation leads to in digital communications and the techniques that can be used to remedy the effects of signal attenuation. Then give a concise outline of how signal attenuation is put to beneficial use in cellular communications. The maximum word limit for Question 2b (iii) is 200 words. (10 marks)
- a.
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Question 3 (30 marks)
- a.
- i. In Block 3 Part 5 Activity 5.12 you found a web resource and added a page section about it to a wiki. Now that you have studied Part 6 of Block 3, find a web resource that you think is interesting and relevant specifically to Part 6. Add a page section about this resource to the TM111 TMA03 tutor group wiki. In your wiki section you should include a link to your chosen resource, explain what it is about and how it is relevant to Part 6. You should write no more than 150 words.As your answer to this part of Question 3: – paste into your TMA document a copy of the text in your wiki section – make a screenshot showing your wiki section and paste it into your TMA document.(6 marks)
- ii. Choose a section in the wiki which you find interesting, contributed by another student. Using the wiki’s ‘Edit section’ facility, add a comment to the wiki section you chose, explaining why it is of interest to you. You should write no more than 100 words. Precede your comment with ‘A comment from [your name]’ so that your tutor and other students can tell who the comment is from. As your answer to this part of Question 3: – paste into your TMA document a copy of your comment – make a screenshot showing your comment in the wiki section and paste it into your TMA document.(3 marks)
- iii. Thinking back to your work in OpenStudio in Block 1, write a short piece of text comparing your experience of using the wiki with your experience of OpenStudio. Which did you prefer for this type of activity (i.e. adding web resources and making comments on them) and why? Relate your answer to two of the following concepts that you learnt about in Block 1 Part 6.5.1, ‘What is usability?’:- effectiveness – efficiency – satisfaction – learnability – recoverability The maximum word limit for Question 2a (iii) is 250 words.(6 marks)
- b. In this part of Question 3 you will be working with the following extract from an opinion piece in the Times newspaper by the controversial journalist Matt Ridley (note that ‘ad hom’ is short for ‘ad hominem’; you may need to use a dictionary or search the web to see what this means).
If we don’t tame Twitter, we’ll face mob rule – In the 1930s radio was the tool of dictators and propagandists. Now social media is fuelling abuse and driving us apart
[…] Social media is polarising our discourse more painfully than before. It amplifies the personal and the extreme, hots up the echo chamber and gives wings to lies. Confirmation bias rules, preaching to the converted dominates, nuance vanishes and moderates stay silent.I am a bit of a technological determinist about this. I think communications technologies can decide the political temperature. After decades in which they generally helped moderate discourse, outside autocracies, they are now inflaming it. When blogging was all the rage a decade ago, at least there was space for nuance. Now, opinions are boiled down to a single shout.I use Twitter mainly to find and pass on links to articles and reports on topics that interest me. To do so, though, I have to wade through bitter feuds, walk past vicious ad-homs, jump over blatant embellishments and bump into absurd hyperbole. “I can’t even remember what it is like to go to bed not feeling homicidal with rage,†read one tweet on Friday, not from a Black Lives Matter activist or a relative of a Dallas policeman, nor from an Islamist or the relative of a victim of Islamist bombing, but from a distinguished journalist upset about Brexit.I am not the first to make this point. A Pew Research Centre project in America found that “Polarised crowds on Twitter are not arguing. They are ignoring one another while pointing to different web resources and using different hashtags.†A group of Italian academics published a paper last year finding that “selective exposure to content … generates the formation of homogeneous clusters, ie, ‘echo chambers’†[…](Source: Ridley, 2016)Matt Ridley says ‘I am a bit of a technological determinist about this’.
- i.Based on your study of Block 3 Part 6, explain in your own words what is meant by ‘technological determinism’. What does Ridley say in the extract above that supports the idea that he is ‘a bit of a technological determinist’? (5 marks)
- ii.Why are explanations based on technological determinism sometimes misleading? Illustrate your answer by presenting counter arguments to those of Ridley about social media. (5 marks)
- iii.In Block 3 Part 5 you learned about the idea of the ‘filter bubble effect’. Explain in your own words what this means and how it relates to the ideas in first paragraph of the extract above. The maximum word limit for Question 3(b) is 300 words.(5 marks)
- a.
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Question 4 (10 marks)
What you should have already completedYou should have completed your PDP action plan form as part of Activity 6.21 in Block 1 Part 6, and submitted it in TMA02. You will find it helpful to revisit Steps 4 and 5 of Section 6.6.3 Reviewing your goals and action plan before answering this question.Answering this questionYour tasks here are to:
- review and reflect on your progress in relation to the PDP action plan you submitted as part of TMA02
- comment briefly on the knowledge and skills you have gained as a result of your studies
- assess your progress towards your goals, and/or state clearly why/how they have changed.
You should use the PDP action plan review template for this purpose, and you should then make an updated version of your PDP action plan form.Your commentary must include the goal(s) relating to improving your learning or study skills while studying TM111. You should submit both the PDP action plan review template and your updated PDP action plan form as your answer to this question.
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References
Ridley, M. (2016) ‘If we don’t tame Twitter, we’ll face mob rule’,
The Times, 11 July, p. 17.