Question

Use the excerpt to answer the question.

The Y2K fear was the unanticipated outcome of the

A.
failure of government regulation.

B.
incompetence of Silicon Valley.

C.
unexpected foreign competition.

D.
cost-saving efforts in the 1970s.

Answer 1

The Y2K scare was caused by the use of two-digit year codes in computer systems to save space in the 1970s, which posed a threat of system failures as the year 2000 approached.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Y2K scare was a widespread concern in the late 1990s that computer systems would fail when the date changed from December 31, 1999, to January 1, 2000. This fear stemmed from the practice in the 1960s to 1980s of representing the year with only two digits to save memory space, not anticipating the change of the century which could result in system errors or data corruption due to the '00' being interpreted as the year 1900 instead of 2000. However, with extensive media coverage and public awareness, significant remediation efforts were undertaken worldwide to prepare computer systems for the date change, averting potential problems.

In response to the excerpt and options provided, the Y2K fear was the unanticipated outcome of cost-saving efforts in the 1970s. Programmers at that time used two-digit year codes to reduce the amount of data stored, as memory was much more expensive than it is today. While this was effective in the short term, it created the potential for massive system failures four decades later as the year rolled over to 2000.