CISC 130 - Problem Solving in the Natural Sciences - Exam 1
Closed Book - Closed Notes - Calculators Permitted
65 Minutes - 100 Points - ASCII Code Table
NAME___________________________________________________________NAME
DIRECTIONS: Answer all questions on this exam in the space provided. Show all work necessary in
arriving at any result.
1. (5 pts.) Assume an 8-bit computer. Given the bit pattern 01010011, convert it to (interpret it as) a
decimal integer.
2. (5 pts.) Assume an 8-bit computer. Given the bit pattern 01010011, convert it to (interpret it as) an
ASCII character.
3. (4 pts.) Estimate 2 to the 35th power.
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Exam 1, Spring, 2010
4. (3 pts.) How many different values can be stored in 9 bits?
5. (3 pts.) What is the largest unsigned integer that can be validly stored in 9 bits?
6. (10 pts.) List a sequence of at least 5 general steps that will assist in problem solving
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Exam 1, Spring, 2010
7. (9 pts.) a. What is an algorithm?
b. What is a heuristic?
c. What's the difference?
8. (4 pts.) After execution of the following MATLAB statements, what is the value of x?
x = 4;
y = x;
x = 5;
y = 6;
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Exam 1, Spring, 2010
9. (6 pts.) Write MATLAB code that will compute the value of the smaller of two numbers. Assume the
numbers are already stored in the variables x and y.
10. (7 pts.) (Kaplan, page 32, Exercise 2.2) Write in MATLAB (3-(5+2*8))/4 in functional style
using plus, minus, times, and rdivide.
11. (7 pts.) Write a MATLAB statement to generate a vector named ix containing the odd numbers
from 1 to 21. (That would be the vector 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21, and ix = [1 3 5 7 9 11 13
15 17 19 21] is not an acceptable answer.)
12. (7 pts.) Using the vector ix from the previous problem, write a MATLAB statement to obtain the 1st,
3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, … , 21st elements of a vector named mydata. (Using any constants, like 1, 3,
5, etc. in your answer is not acceptable.)
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Exam 1, Spring, 2010
13. (7 pts.) (Kaplan, page 33, Exercise 2.3) Write in MATLAB a statement to calculate
a2  b2
and store the result in c.
14. (7 pts.) Write MATLAB code that will compute the total of all the elements in a numeric vector
(array). Assume numbers are already stored in the vector data.
15. (8 pts.) Write MATLAB code that will generate a numeric vector containing the numeric values 0 to
50, inclusive. Then generate a second vector containing the squares of the numbers 0 to 50,
inclusive. Finally, generate a third vector containing the square roots of the numbers 0 to 50,
inclusive. (An answer involving more than 10 statements is not acceptable.)
16. (Kaplan, page 61, Exercise 3.3) (6 pts.) Make a MATLAB plot of the function e  x sin 3 x over the
domain from 1 to 4. Try to use the largest step size that gives visually reasonable results.
(3 pts.) Explain what "visually reasonable" might mean.
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Exam 1, Spring, 2010
ASCII
(American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
Low order bits
(4321)
0000
0001
0010
0011
0100
0101
0110
0111
1000
1001
1010
1011
1100
1101
1110
1111
000
001
NUL
SOH
STX
ETX
EOT
ENQ
ACK
BEL
BS
HT
LF
VT
FF
CR
SO
SI
DLE
DC1
DC2
DC3
DC4
NAK
SYN
ETB
CAN
EM
SUB
ESC
FS
GS
RS
US
NUL
SOH
STX
ETX
EOT
ENQ
ACK
BEL
BS
HT
LF
VT
FF
CR
SO
SI
SP
NULl
Start Of Heading
Start of TeXt
End of TeXt
End Of Transmission
ENQuiry
ACKnowledge
BELl or alarm
BackSpace
(Horizontal) Tab
Line Feed
Vertical Tab
Form Feed
Carriage Return
Shift Out
Shift In
SPace
Control-@
Control-A
Control-B
Control-C
Control-D
Control-E
Control-F
Control-G
Control-H
Control-I
Control-J
Control-K
Control-L
Control-M
Control-N
Control-O
High order bits (765)
010
011
100
101
SP
!
"
#
$
%
&
´
(
)
*
+
,
.
/
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
:
;
<
=
>
?
DLE
DC1
DC2
DC3
DC4
NAK
SYN
ETB
CAN
EM
SUB
ESC
FS
GS
RS
US
DEL
@
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
Control-P
Control-Q
Control-R
Control-S
Control-T
Control-U
Control-V
Control-W
Control-X
Control-Y
Control-Z
Control-[
Control-\
Control-]
Control-^
Control-_
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
[
\
]
^ or 
_ or 
110
111
`
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z
{
|
}
~
DEL
Data Link Escape
Device Control 1
Device Control 2
Device Control 3
Device Control 4
Negative AcKnowledge
SYNchronous idle
End of Transmit Block
CANcel
End of Medium
SUBstitute
ESCape
File Separator
Group Separator
Record Separator
Unit Separator
DELete