IC3 Computing Fundamentals and Key Applications Flashcards

Cell B2 of a spreadsheet contains the formula =$A2*B$1. You copy B2 and paste it into cell D5. Which formula will D5 contain?

Answer: =$A5*D$1

Both references are mixed. In $A2 the column is locked and the row is relative, so moving down 3 rows changes it to $A5. In B$1 the row is locked and the column is relative, so moving right 2 columns changes it to D$1. The result is =$A5*D$1.

A user tries to copy a single 6 GB video file to a new 64 GB USB flash drive that is empty. The copy fails with a message that the file is too large for the destination, even though there is plenty of free space. What is the most likely cause, and what fixes it?

Answer: The drive is formatted FAT32, which allows files no larger than 4 GB. Reformat it as exFAT or NTFS.

FAT32 limits any single file to just under 4 GB, no matter how much free space the drive has. Many flash drives ship formatted as FAT32. Reformatting as exFAT (or NTFS) removes this limit. Port speed affects how fast data transfers, not the maximum file size, and a write-protected drive would refuse every file, not just large ones.

In Windows File Explorer, you drag a file with the left mouse button and drop it into a folder on a different drive (from C: to an external drive E:) without holding any keys. What happens by default?

Answer: The file is copied to E: and the original stays on C:

By default, Windows moves a dragged file when the source and destination are on the same drive, and copies it when they are on different drives. To force a move across drives, hold Shift while dragging. Holding Alt creates a shortcut, and dragging with the right mouse button shows a menu of choices.

You are editing a 20-page portrait report and need only page 12 (a wide table) to be in landscape orientation. What is the correct way to do this in a word processor such as Microsoft Word?

Answer: Insert a Next Page section break before and after the table, then set only that section to Landscape

Page orientation is a section-level setting. A normal page break does not create a new section, so changing the orientation would affect the whole section. Next Page section breaks before and after the table put that page in its own section, which can be set to Landscape while the rest of the document stays portrait. Orientation cannot change partway through a page, so a Continuous break will not work here.

A laptop with 4 GB of RAM becomes very slow when the user has many browser tabs and a spreadsheet open. Task Manager shows memory use near 98% and constant disk activity, even though no files are being saved. What is the best explanation and fix?

Answer: The system has run out of physical RAM and is paging to virtual memory on disk. Add more RAM or close programs.

When physical RAM is full, the operating system moves data to a page file on the storage drive (virtual memory). The disk is far slower than RAM, so the constant swapping causes heavy disk activity and slowdowns. Memory near 100% is the key sign. The lasting fix is more RAM; closing programs helps in the short term.

A worksheet has product IDs in column A, which are NOT sorted, and prices in column B. The formula =VLOOKUP("P-207",A2:B500,2) sometimes returns the price of a different product, even though P-207 is in the list. What is the cause?

Answer: The range_lookup argument was left out, so VLOOKUP uses approximate match, which expects sorted data

If the fourth argument (range_lookup) is left out, VLOOKUP defaults to TRUE (approximate match). Approximate match assumes the first column is sorted in ascending order and can stop at the wrong row when it isn't. Adding FALSE (or 0) as the fourth argument forces an exact match: =VLOOKUP("P-207",A2:B500,2,FALSE). Absolute references only matter when the formula is copied.