Answer from cs61c-ar (Albert Chung 15826273) for Question 1
a.
malloc sets aside a block of memory for the user to use, so it is taking away the number of free blocks available in the system.  

b.
malloc may free a block of memory that is no longer being used and return that to the user, so the number of free blocks has been increased and decreased by the same amount, thus leaving it unchanged.