Computer Hardware Acronyms Galore!

Posted on January 13, 2022 by Administrator Posted in A Level Concepts, A Level Quiz, Computer Hardware, Computer Science, Computing Concepts, Computing Terminology Quiz, Crosswords, GCSE Concepts, GCSE Quiz, Quizzes, Solved Challenges

Are you confident with your knowledge of key computer hardware terminology? Check if you know what these acronyms stand for!

GCSEA Level

Computer Hardware Acronyms – GCSE LevelOpen this Puzzle in a New Window

Computer Hardware Acronyms – A LevelOpen this Puzzle in a New Window

Solution...

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Tagged with: Hardware, Quiz

Using Karnaugh Maps

Posted on January 11, 2022 by Administrator Posted in A Level Concepts, A Level Quiz, Computer Science, Computing Concepts, Solved Challenges

Karnaugh maps are a tool used to simplify complex Boolean expressions. To do so you will need to be able to

Complete a Karnaugh Map for a given Boolean Expression or a given Truth Table.
Identify the main blocks of 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 consecutive 1s.
Use these blocks to write down the Simplified Boolean Expression for your Karnaugh Map.

The following slideshow gives examples of how blocks can be identified on different Karnaugh Maps:

Your Task

Use a Karnaugh Map with 4 inputs to simplify each of the following Boolean expressions:
Click on the Boolean Expressions below to open our online Karnaugh Map tool

Solution...

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Computer Science Wordle!

Posted on December 31, 2021 by Administrator Posted in A Level Quiz, Computer Science, Computing Concepts, Computing Terminology Quiz, GCSE Concepts, GCSE Quiz

Have a go at guessing the hidden computer science keywords…

5 Letters 6 Letters

Tagged with: Quiz

Office Network Design Task

Posted on December 23, 2021 by Administrator Posted in A Level Concepts, Computer Networks, Computer Science, Computing Concepts, GCSE Concepts, Solved Challenges

A small IT company would like your help to improve the performance of their network.

They have a range of network components, all connected using ethernet cables but are not too sure how all the equipment are connected together. Before upgrading their network, they would like you to draw a diagram representing their network topology.

Luckily, all the ethernet ports on all the equipment used in the office have been clearly labelled, so these labels should help you draw an accurate design/topology of this network.

To draw the network design, you will need to use our network design tool:
Design Your Own Network Online

Here is all the information you will need to design this network.

Floor PlanMain SwitchRouterFirewallWAPHub

The network consists of:

8 Desktop computers spread across two rooms,
2 inkjet printers,
A server rack with a file server, an e-mail server, a web-server and a backup server,
A main switch (in the server room),
A hub (in the extension room),
A router,
A firewall,
A Wireless Access Point (in the main office area).

The employees of the office can also connect their smartphones and laptops wirelessly.

Here is the floor plan of the office:

Here is a picture of the main switch, located in the server room. The labels on this switch should help you design the network topology. (Click on the picture to zoom in).

Here is a picture of the router, located in the server room. The labels on this router should help you design the network topology. (Click on the picture to zoom in).

Here is a picture of the firewall, located in the server room. The labels on this firewall should help you design the network topology. (Click on the picture to zoom in).

Here is a picture of the Wireless Access Point (WAP), located in the main office. The label on this WAP should help you design the network topology. (Click on the picture to zoom in).

Here is a picture of the network hub, located in the extension room. The labels on this hub should help you design the network topology. (Click on the picture to zoom in).

Improving the Network Performance

The employees find that the network performance is not great especially when:

Accessing the Internet
Connecting their laptops and smartphones wirelessly in the extension room.

To improve the performance of this network, the office have contacted their Internet Service Provider and upgraded their Internet Connection to a higher bandwidth.

They were also told that, installing a cache server could improve the performance of the network when employees access the Internet.

Finally, they found out that the network Wi-Fi signal in the extension room was fairly weak due to the distance to the Wireless Access Point and the presence of partition walls between the extension room and the main office area where the WAP is located. They were advised to install an extra Wireless Access Point in the extension room.

Could you upgrade your network diagram by adding:

A cache server, connected to the main switch,
An extra Wireless Access Point (WAP), connected to the main switch.

Solution...

The solution for this challenge is available to full members!
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Tagged with: Networks

Let It Snow Challenge

Posted on December 23, 2021 by Administrator Posted in Computer Science, Python - Beginner, Python Challenges, Solved Challenges

In this challenge, we will create a randomised Christmas card using Python Turtle. Our card will include 20 snowflakes of random sizes, colours and number of branches, randomly positioned on the canvas.

We will also add some Christmas Greetings to our card.

The aim of this challenge is to learn how to define your own functions in Python and to add your own parameters to your functions.

Before completing this challenge, you should first learn how to draw a snowflake using Python Turtle by completing our snowflake challenge.

You will then be able to re-use your code to complete this “Let It Snow” challenge, following the steps from this video tutorial.

Video Tutorial

Python Code

You can now complete the code below as explained in the above video tutorial…

Solution...

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Tagged with: Function, Python Turtle, Video Tutorial

Solving a Zebra Puzzle using Prolog

Posted on December 21, 2021 by Administrator Posted in A Level Concepts, Computer Science, Computing Concepts

In this challenge, we are aiming to get the computer to solve Zebra Puzzles by creating Prolog programs.

Zebra Puzzle?

Zebra Puzzles, also known as Einstein’s Riddles, are a type of logic puzzles where you have to use the clues to make logic deductions in order to solve a given problem.

The most famous Zebra Puzzle was created by Einstein and published in 1962. You can find out more about this puzzle on this page.

Our zebra puzzle will be based on the following scenario:

Three kids went to a superheroes fancy dress birthday party.
The names of the three kids are Ethan, Ali and Anya.
They dressed up as Spiderman, Captain America and Iron Man.
The kids are 6, 8 and 10 years old.

We don’t know how each kid dressed up or how old each kid is but we have the following clues:

Anya was dressed up as Spiderman.

Ethan was not dressed up as Captain America.

The youngest kid dressed up as Spiderman.

The kid who is 8 years old dressed up as Captain America.

You can solve this puzzle manually using the following grid:

Prolog?

Prolog is a declarative language that uses a recursive approach to solve logic puzzles. To solve a logic Puzzle using Prolog, a programmer first needs to declare a knowledge base consisting of a collection of facts and rules. This knowledge base can then be used to run queries to try to solve the puzzle.

Setting up the knowledge base

Let’s first focus on declaring the key facts of our puzzle as follows:

/* Facts */
kid(ethan).
kid(ali).
kid(anya).

hero(spiderman).
hero(captain_america).
hero(iron_man).

age(six).
age(eight).
age(ten).

We will then implement our clues as rules:

relation(K,H,A):- K=anya, H=spiderman, age(A).
relation(K,H,A):- K=ethan, hero(H), age(A), H\=captain_america.
relation(K,H,A):- kid(K), H=spiderman, A=six.
relation(K,H,A):- kid(K), H=captain_america, A=eight.

We will add two extra rules that will be used to solve this puzzle and to reinforce the fact that two kids cannot have the same age or the same costume.

different(X,Y,Z):-X\=Y,X\=Z,Y\=Z.
solve(K1,H1,A1,K2,H2,A2,K3,H3,A3):- relation(K1,H1,A1),relation(K2,H2,A2),relation(K3,H3,A3),different(K1,K2,K3),different(H1,H2,H3),different(A1,A2,A3).

Solving the puzzle…

We have created this knowledge base using an online Prolog Environment called Swish:
https://swish.swi-prolog.org/p/Superheroes%20Zebra%20Puzzle.pl

You can now run the following query to solve this puzzle:

?-solve(K1,H1,A1,K2,H2,A2,K3,H3,A3)

Your Turn!

Pick up any Logic Grid Puzzle from this website and build your own set of facts and rules in Prolog to solve your puzzle.

Tagged with: Prolog

Dingbats – A Level Computer Science

Posted on December 20, 2021 by Administrator Posted in A Level Concepts, A Level Quiz, Computer Science, Computing Concepts, Computing Terminology Quiz, Quizzes

Feeling confident with your A Level Computer Science terminology?

Have a go at guessing the hidden keywords or expressions represented by the following dingbats…

Dingbats 1 to 20Dingbats 21 to 40Dingbats 41 to 60Extras

Hint?

Here is a list of all the keywords used in the above dingbats, in alphabetical order…

Double Six Dice Game

Posted on December 15, 2021 by Administrator Posted in Computer Science, Python - Beginner, Python Challenges, Solved Challenges

In this challenge, we will use a step by step approach to create a 2-player dice game with the following rules:

The first player rolls a pair of dice, and keeps rolling the dice again and again, until they roll a double six.
It is then the turn of the the second player. They too will roll the dice and keep doing so until they roll a double six.
The winner of the game is the user who rolled a double six in the smaller number of attempts.
The game ends on a draw if both players used the same number of attempts to roll a double six.

Python Code

So let’s tackle this Python challenge one step at a time… You will need to type your code in the code window below, using the step by step checklist provided underneath the code window.

Step by Step Checklist!

	Step 1: Displaying a welcome banner Write some Python code using the print command to display to display a nice banner with the title of the game: “Double Six Dice Game”. Your banner could look like this: ___________________________ \| \| \| Double Six Dice Game \| \|__________________________\|
	Step 2: Retrieving the name of the first player Use an input command to ask for the first player to enter their name. Store this name in a variable called player1. You will have to use this variable later on, at the end of the game to display the name of the winner of the game.
	Step 3: Throwing the first dice… Use the randint function from the random library to generate and output a random number between 1 and 6 for the first dice. Store this randomly generated number in a variable called dice1. Here is the Python code to generate a random number from 1 to 10: import random number=random.randint(1,10)
	Step 4: Throwing the second dice… Re-use the code from step 3 to generate and output a second random number between 1 and 6. Store this randomly generated number in a variable called dice2.
	Step 5: Carry on throwing the dice until a double six is rolled. You will now need to use a while loop, to repeat steps 3 and 4 for as long as player 1 doesn’t throw a double six.
	Step 6: Counting the number of throws. Add a counter using a variable called counter1 to count the number of attempts/throws of the two dice. You will need to: Initialise your counter1 variable at the start of the game to 0. Increment your counter1 variable by 1 after each throw of the two dice. Output the total number of attempts once a double six has been rolled.
	Step 7: Player 2’s turn… Repeat steps 2 to 6 for player 2!
	Step 8: Deciding who wins the game! Compare the counter of both players to display the appropriate message to end the game: Player 1 wins if they have had less attempts than player 2. Player 2 wins if they have had less attempts than player 1. The game ends on a draw if both players have had exactly the same number of attempts to roll a double six.

Solution...

The solution for this challenge is available to full members!
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Dingbats – GCSE Computer Science

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Administrator Posted in Computer Science, Computing Concepts, Computing Terminology Quiz, GCSE Concepts, GCSE Quiz, Quizzes

Feeling confident with your GCSE Computer Science terminology?

Have a go at guessing the hidden keywords or expressions represented by the following dingbats…

Dingbats 1 to 12Dingbats 13 to 24Dingbats 25 to 36Extras

Hint?

Here is a list of all the keywords used in the above dingbats, in alphabetical order…

Procedural Programming Terminology (Crossword)

Posted on December 6, 2021 by Administrator Posted in A Level Concepts, A Level Quiz, Computer Science, Computing Concepts, Computing Terminology Quiz, Crosswords, GCSE Concepts, GCSE Quiz, Solved Challenges

Are you confident with your knowledge of key procedural programming concepts, including sequencing, selection, iteration and the use of subroutines?

You can find out more about the key terminology relevant to procedural programming using our Periodic Table of Procedural Programming Concepts.

Procedural Programming TerminologyOpen Crossword Puzzle in a New Window

Solution...

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