AdvancedA-005-007-004
How many bits are required to provide 256 discrete levels, or a ratio of 256:1?
C
Answer
Antennas and transmission lines
Type
A
16 bits
B
4 bits
C
8 bits
D
6 bits
Answer Notes
In digital electronics, the number of discrete levels that can be represented by a binary sequence is calculated using powers of 2. The formula is 2^n, where n is the number of bits.
To find how many bits are required for 256 levels, you calculate 2 to the power of 8 (2^8), which equals 256. This means an 8-bit digital system can represent binary values from 0 to 255, giving exactly 256 discrete levels.
By comparison, 4 bits would only provide 16 levels, 6 bits would provide 64 levels, and 16 bits would provide a massive 65,536 levels. Therefore, 8 bits is the precise answer.
Previous · A-005-007-003
Which of the following functions is not included in a typical digital signal processor?
Next · A-005-007-005
Adding one bit to the word length, is equivalent to adding ____ dB to the dynamic range of the digitizer: