Error detecting code and Hamming distance

Question

The Hamming distance of v and w equals 2, but without parity bit it would be just 1. Why is this the case?

Answer 1

This would be more appropriately asked in the theoretical computer science section of StackExchange, but since you've been honest and flagged it as homework ...

ASCII uses 7 bits to specify a character. (In ASCII, 'X' is represented by the 7 bits `1011000'.) If you start with any ASCII sequence, the number of bits you need to flip to get to another legitimate ASCII sequence is only 1 bit. Therefore the Hamming distance between plain ASCII sequences is 1.

However, if a parity bit is added (for a total of 8 bits -- the 7 ASCII bits plus one parity bit, conventionally shown in the leftmost position) then any single-bit flip in the sequence will cause the result to have incorrect parity. Following the example, with even parity 'X' is represented by 11011000, because the parity bit is chosen to give an even number of 1s in the sequence. If you now flip any single bit in that sequence then the result will be unacceptable because it will have incorrect parity. In order to arrive at an acceptable new sequence with even parity you must change a minimum of two bits. Therefore when parity is in effect the Hamming distance between acceptable sequences is 2.