A certain automated data-logging instrument has 16K words of on-board memory. The device samples the variable of interest once every 5 min. How often must data be downloaded and the memory cleared to avoid losing any data?

Question

Known quantities:
The on-board memory of an automated data-logging, 16 K-words, that samples the variable of interest once every 5 min.

Find:
How often must the data be downloaded and the memory cleared in order to avoid losing any data.

Answer 1

Analysis:
If the memory can store 16000 words, and each sample requires 1 word of storage in the memory, samples that are taken one every 5 minutes, will take

16000 wordsx5 minutes/word = 80000 minutes

to completely fill up the memory. Since 1 day consists of (60)(24) = 1400 minutes, the memory has to be cleared (at least incrementally) after 80000/1400 days. This is approximately 55.55 days. If the memory is not cleared and space made for storage of new data, data samples take after 55.55 days will not be recorded.