Subject

    Computer Science

    Topic

    Computer Hardware

    What is the purpose of 'parity checking' in data transmission or storage?

    a)
    To compress data to a smaller size.
    b)
    To encrypt data for security.
    c)
    To detect if a single bit error has occurred in a block of data.
    d)
    To correct multiple bit errors.

    Explanation

    Parity checking is a simple form of error detection. An extra 'parity bit' is added to a block of data, set to 1 or 0 to make the total number of '1' bits either even (even parity) or odd (odd parity). The receiving end checks the parity; if it's wrong, it knows an error occurred, but it cannot correct the error or detect an even number of bit flips.

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