This introduction covers The Digital Camera Trick within Images & Sound for GCSE Computer Science. Revise Images & Sound in Memory & Storage for GCSE Computer Science with 18 exam-style questions and 16 flashcards. This is a high-frequency topic, so it is worth revising until the explanation feels precise and repeatable. It is section 1 of 11 in this topic. Use this introduction to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Topic position
Section 1 of 11
Practice
18 questions
Recall
16 flashcards
The Digital Camera Trick
Your phone camera doesn't actually "take a picture" - it takes millions of tiny measurements! Each pixel (dot) gets 3 numbers: how much red (0-255), how much green (0-255), how much blue (0-255). A 12-megapixel photo = 12 million pixels × 3 colors × 1 byte = 36 MB! Similarly, recording sound means measuring air pressure thousands of times per second. CD quality = 44,100 measurements per second × 2 ears × 2 bytes = 176 KB/second. Digital media isn't magic - it's just lots and lots of numbers!