Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2021 / ii / Paper 1 / 3K / i / Solution

For a binary block code, $n$ is the common length of its codewords, $m=|C|$ is the number of codewords, andis its minimum Hamming distance.

The parity extension isEvery extended word has even Hamming weight. The distance between two words increases by one exactly when their original distance is odd, so