(a) A text file contains the message "Hello World" in ASCII encoding. (i) State how many characters are in the message (including the space). [1] (ii) Calcu...

(a)(i) State how many characters are in the message "Hello World". [1]

Counting each character including the space: H-e-l-l-o-[space]-W-o-r-l-d = 11 characters. [1]

The space between "Hello" and "World" is a character in ASCII (code 32) and must be counted.

(a)(ii) Calculate the file size in bits. [1]

Each ASCII character uses 8 bits (1 byte):

11 x 8 = 88 bits [1]

(b)(i) Calculate the file size in bits using UTF-16. [1]

In UTF-16, each character uses 16 bits:

11 x 16 = 176 bits [1]

(b)(ii) Compare this to the ASCII version. [1]

The UTF-16 version is exactly twice the size of the ASCII version (176 bits vs. 88 bits). [1] This is because UTF-16 uses 16 bits per character compared to ASCII's 8 bits. For text that only contains basic Latin characters, UTF-16 doubles the storage requirement with no benefit in character coverage.

(c) Explain why ASCII cannot be used for a Japanese web page. [2]

ASCII contains only 128 characters (or 256 in extended ASCII), which cover the English/Latin alphabet, digits, and basic punctuation. [1] Japanese text requires thousands of unique characters across three scripts: kanji (thousands of logographic characters), hiragana (46 base characters), and katakana (46 base characters). These are far beyond what ASCII can represent, so Unicode is required to encode them. [1]