Question

How many bits does it take to identify uniquely every person in the United States (the current population is about 300 million)?

Answer 1

To uniquely identify every person in the United States, 29 bits are needed.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the number of bits required to uniquely identify every person in the United States, we need to calculate the maximum number of unique combinations. In this case, we can use the current population of about 300 million. To represent this population using bits, we need to find the smallest number of bits that can hold a value equal to or greater than 300 million.

The smallest power of 2 that is greater than or equal to 300 million is 2²⁹ (536,870,912). Therefore, we need 29 bits to uniquely identify every person in the United States.