Introduction

The Fundamentals of Engineering Exam contains seven questions concerning computers in the morning session and three questions in the afternoon session. These questions cover the topics of operating systems, networks, interfaces, spreadsheets, flow charting, and data transmission. Each of the branch specific afternoon exams contain three questions on numerical methods related to that branch.

You should review the glossary of important computer related keywords that is presented at the end of this chapter to ensure you have a basic understanding of this broad general topic. Should you find any term unfamiliar to you, a review of that topic would be warrented. The current exam does not include a programming language such as FORTRAN or BASIC but use of applications such as spreadsheets are included. You should be familiar with one of the popular spreadsheet programs such as Excel, Quattro Pro or 1-2-3.

Number Systems

The number system most familiar to everyone is the decimal system based on the ten symbols 0 through 9. This base 10 system requires ten different digits to create the representation of numbers.

A far simpler system is the binary number system. This base 2 system uses only the characters 0 and 1 to represent any number. A binary representation 110, for example, corresponds to the number

1x2 ² + 1x2 ¹ + 1x2 ⁰ = 4 + 2 + 0 = 6

Similarly the binary number 1010 would be

1x2 ³ + 0x2 ² + 1x2