AP CSP Day 46 Lossy vs. Lossless Compression
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Big Idea 2
Day 46 Practice
Focus: Lossy vs Lossless Compression
Practice Question
A photographer needs to compress thousands of photos for long-term archival storage and plans to edit them later. Which compression should they use?
Why This Answer?
For archival and future editing, lossless compression is essential because it preserves all original data. Lossy would permanently lose details needed for editing.
Why Not the Others?
A) Space savings not worth losing original data for editing.
C) Lossy and lossless produce different results.
D) Compression doesn't significantly slow access and saves massive space.
Common Mistake
Watch Out!
Choosing compression based only on file size, ignoring data preservation needs. For editing, lossless is critical.
AP Exam Tip
Lossless for data you'll need again (documents, archives, RAW photos). Lossy for final delivery (streaming, web).