Choosing a logging interval for sensor readings

Name:

Date:

Class:

Quick Questions

Shade in the A or B circle for each question.

1. A weather station logs the temperature once every hour. Which statement about its data is correct?

A It captures every tiny change and uses huge storage

B It uses little storage but could miss a quick change between readings

2. Which logging interval produces the BIGGEST file after one day?

A Every 1 second

B Every 1 hour

3. A student wants to record how fast a ball's temperature changes when dropped into ice water over 30 seconds. Which interval suits best?

A Every 1 second

B Every 1 hour

4. A school wants to track the slow change in room temperature across a whole term while keeping the spreadsheet small. Which interval is more sensible?

A Every 30 minutes

B Every 1 second

5. What is the logging interval?

A How accurate a sensor's reading is

B How often a sensor records a reading

Match the Pairs

Draw a line connecting each item on the left to its match on the right.

Left column		Right column
1interval = 1 (seconds)		AThe sensor logs a reading every second, giving lots of detail but a very large file
2interval = 3600 (seconds)		BAn hourly interval can miss a spike that starts and ends between two readings, so the spike may never appear in the data.
3A short logging interval gives more detail but creates a bigger file		CThe sensor logs one reading per hour, saving space but possibly missing fast changes
4A long logging interval saves storage space because fewer readings are stored		Dreadings_per_day = 24 / interval_hours
5A 2-minute spike in temperature is logged every 1 hour, so every spike will be recorded.		Ereadings_per_day = 86400 / interval
6Logging every second for a month is best because the file size does not matter.		FFile size does matter: a very short interval over a long period creates a huge dataset that takes up storage and is slow to process.

Definitions

logging interval

Fill in the Blanks

Complete each line of code by filling in the missing parts.

# Log one reading every hour interval = ____

perDay = 86400 _ interval

interval = 10 logReading() sleep(________)

if interval _ spike: print("Spike may be missed")

if size > limit: interval = interval _ 2 print("Longer interval set")

Spot the Error

Shade in the letter of the line that contains an error.

Question 1

A interval = "60"

B per_hour = 3600 / interval

C print(per_hour)

Question 2

A interval = 1

B day = 86400

C count = day * interval

D print(count)

Question 3

A every_second = 3600

B every_hour = 24

C print(every_second > every_hour)

Question 4

A interval = 3600

B if interval > 60:

C print("Big file")

D else:

E print("Big file")

Question 5

A # Heart rate sensor

B interval = 3600

C log_every(interval)

Answer Key

Choosing a logging interval for sensor readings

Section A: Quick Questions

B — It uses little storage but could miss a quick change between readings

A — Every 1 second

A — Every 30 minutes

B — How often a sensor records a reading

Section B: Match the Pairs

interval = 1 (seconds) → The sensor logs a reading every second, giving lots of detail but a very large file

interval = 3600 (seconds) → The sensor logs one reading per hour, saving space but possibly missing fast changes

A short logging interval gives more detail but creates a bigger file → readings_per_day = 86400 / interval

A long logging interval saves storage space because fewer readings are stored → readings_per_day = 24 / interval_hours

A 2-minute spike in temperature is logged every 1 hour, so every spike will be recorded. → An hourly interval can miss a spike that starts and ends between two readings, so the spike may never appear in the data.

Logging every second for a month is best because the file size does not matter. → File size does matter: a very short interval over a long period creates a huge dataset that takes up storage and is slow to process.

Section C: Definitions

logging interval — How often a sensor records a reading. Short intervals give more detail but bigger files; long intervals save space but can miss fast changes.

Section D: Fill in the Blanks

# Log one reading every hour
interval = 3600

perDay = 86400 / interval

interval = 10
logReading()
sleep(interval)

if interval > spike:
    print("Spike may be missed")

if size > limit:
    interval = interval * 2
    print("Longer interval set")

Section E: Spot the Error

A — The interval is a number of seconds, so it must be stored as a number. In quotes it is text, and 3600 / interval would cause an error. It should be interval = 60.

C — The number of readings in a day is the seconds in a day divided by the interval. Multiplying gives the wrong answer. It should be count = day / interval.

A — There are 86400 seconds in a day, so logging every second gives 86400 readings a day. 3600 is the number of seconds in an hour, not the number of readings in a day.

C — A long interval (over 60 seconds) means fewer readings, so the file is small. Line 3 should print "Small file".

B — Heart rate changes quickly, so logging once an hour would miss most of the changes. A short interval such as 1 second is needed. It should be interval = 1.