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Programming concepts

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Question 61

A researcher is modeling the concentration of a chemical reactant, CCC, as it decomposes over discrete time steps. The reaction halts when the concentration falls to or below a safety threshold, TTT.

The two subroutines below, Figure 1 and Figure 2, are designed to count the number of steps required for the concentration to reach this safe level.

Figure 1

SUBROUTINE decompose_steps(C, T)
  steps ← 0
  REPEAT
    C ← C * 0.85
    steps ← steps + 1
  UNTIL C <= T
  RETURN steps
ENDSUBROUTINE

Figure 2

SUBROUTINE decompose_steps(C, T)
  steps ← 0
  WHILE C > T
    C ← C * 0.85
    steps ← steps + 1
  ENDWHILE
  RETURN steps
ENDSUBROUTINE

Describe two differences in the way the loops in Figure 1 and Figure 2 operate.

[3]
Markscheme

Programming concepts Questions

  1. GCSE
  2. /Computer Science
  3. /Programming concepts

298 exam-style questions on AQA GCSE Computer Science Programming concepts. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.

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