What is a bit byte kilobyte megabyte gigabyte. About bits, bytes and Internet connection speed

We are constantly measuring something - time, length, speed, mass. And for each quantity there is its own unit of measurement, and often several. Meters and kilometers, kilograms and tons, seconds and hours - all this is familiar to us. How to measure information? Also invented for information unit of measurement and named her bit.

A bit is the smallest unit of information.

One bit contains very little information. It can only take one of two values ​​(1 or 0, yes or no, true or false). Measuring information in bits is very inconvenient - the numbers turn out to be huge. After all, they don’t measure the mass of a car in grams.

For example, if we represent the capacity of a 4GB flash drive in bits, we get 34,359,738,368 bits. Imagine you came to a computer store and asked the seller to give you a flash drive with a capacity of 34,359,738,368 bits. It's unlikely that he will understand you

Therefore, in computer science and in life, bit-derived units of information are used. But they all have a remarkable property - they are powers of two with a step of 10.

So, let's take the number 2 and raise it to the zero power. We get 1 (any number to the zero power is equal to 1). This will be a byte.

There are 8 bits in one byte.

Now we raise 2 to the 10th power - we get 1024. This is kilobyte(KB).

There are 1024 bytes in one kilobyte.

If we raise 2 to the 20th power, we get megabyte(MB).

1 MB = 1024 KB.

Name	Symbol	Degree
byte	B	2 0
kilobyte	kB	2 10
megabyte	MB	2 20
gigabyte	GB	2 30
terabyte	TB	2 40
petabyte	PB	2 50
exabyte	EB	2 60
zettabyte	ZB	2 70
yottabyte	JB	2 80

Understanding this topic will allow you to successfully

To measure length there are units such as millimeter, centimeter, meter, kilometer. It is known that mass is measured in grams, kilograms, centners and tons. The passage of time is expressed in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, centuries. The computer works with information and there are also corresponding units of measurement to measure its volume.

Bit and byte are the minimum units of information.

We already know that the computer perceives all information.

Bit is the minimum unit of measurement of information corresponding to one binary digit (“0” or “1”).

A bit is only 0 (“zero”) or only 1 (“one”). Using one bit, you can write two states: 0 (zero) or 1 (one). A bit is the minimum memory cell; it cannot be smaller. This cell can store either a zero or a one.

Byte consists of eight bits. Using one byte, you can encode one character out of 256 possible (256 = 2 8). Thus, one byte is equal to one character, that is, 8 bits:

1 character = 8 bits = 1 byte.

A letter, number, punctuation mark are symbols. One letter - one symbol. One number is also one symbol. One punctuation mark (either a period, a comma, a question mark, etc.) is again one character. One space is also one character.

In addition to the bit and byte, of course, there are other, larger units of information.

Byte table:

1 byte = 8 bits

1 KB (1 Kilobyte) = 2 10 bytes = 2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2 bytes =
= 1024 bytes (approximately 1 thousand bytes – 10 3 bytes)

1 MB (1 Megabyte) = 2 20 bytes = 1024 kilobytes (approximately 1 million bytes - 10 6 bytes)

1 GB (1 Gigabyte) = 2 30 bytes = 1024 megabytes (approximately 1 billion bytes - 10 9 bytes)

1 TB (1 Terabyte) = 2 40 bytes = 1024 gigabytes (approximately 10 12 bytes). Terabyte is sometimes called ton.

1 Pb (1 Petabyte) = 2 50 bytes = 1024 terabytes (approximately 10 15 bytes).

1 Exabyte= 2 60 bytes = 1024 petabytes (approximately 10 18 bytes).

1 Zettabyte= 2 70 bytes = 1024 exabytes (approximately 10 21 bytes).

1 Yottabyte= 2 80 bytes = 1024 zettabytes (approximately 10 24 bytes).

In the table above, powers of two (2 10, 2 20, 2 30, etc.) are the exact values ​​of kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes. But the powers of the number 10 (more precisely, 10 3, 10 6, 10 9, etc.) will already be approximate values, rounded down. So 2 10 = 1024 bytes represents the exact value of a kilobyte, and 10 3 = 1000 bytes is the approximate value of a kilobyte.

Such an approximation (or rounding) is quite acceptable and is generally accepted.

Below is a table of bytes with English abbreviations (in the left column):

1 Kb ~ 10 3 b = 10*10*10 b= 1000 b – kilobyte

1 Mb ~ 10 6 b = 10*10*10*10*10*10 b = 1,000,000 b – megabyte

1 Gb ~ 10 9 b – gigabyte

1 Tb ~ 10 12 b – terabyte

1 Pb ~ 10 15 b – petabyte

1 Eb ~ 10 18 b – exabyte

1 Zb ~ 10 21 b – zettabyte

1 Yb ~ 10 24 b – yottabyte

Above in the right column are the so-called “decimal prefixes”, which are used not only with bytes, but also in other areas of human activity. For example, the prefix “kilo” in the word “kilobyte” means a thousand bytes. In the case of a kilometer, it corresponds to a thousand meters, and in the example of a kilogram, it is equal to a thousand grams.

To be continued…

The question arises: is there a continuation of the byte table? In mathematics there is a concept of infinity, which is symbolized as an inverted figure eight: ∞.

It is clear that in the byte table you can continue to add zeros, or rather, powers to the number 10 in this way: 10 27, 10 30, 10 33 and so on ad infinitum. But why is this necessary? In principle, terabytes and petabytes are enough for now. In the future, perhaps even a yottabyte will not be enough.

Finally, a couple of examples of devices that can store terabytes and gigabytes of information.

There is a convenient “terabyte” - external hard disk that is connected via USB port to the computer. You can store a terabyte of information on it. Particularly convenient for laptops (where changing hard drive can be problematic) and for Reserve copy information. It's better to do it in advance backups information, and not after everything is gone.

In the modern age of high technology, information is of great importance. Every day a person passes through himself and his gadgets a huge flow of information, so it is necessary to understand the units of measurement of information. In particular, for many people the most pressing question is how many megabytes are in a gigabyte, since this helps to take into account the required amount of traffic provided by the Internet connection provider. In practice, you may also often need to convert megabytes to bytes or megabits to megabytes.

In modern computer technology(in computers) the smallest unit of information is a bit. One bit encodes one single character in the binary system. That is, one bit allows you to write the value “0” or “1” in any of the bits.

How many bits are in a byte

It is obvious that it is impossible to encode any number with one bit carrying only one number. Therefore, the next unit of measurement was the byte, consisting of 8 bits. The bits within a byte record an eight-bit binary code.

1		1	1		1	1	1
2 7	2 6	2 5	2 4	2 3	2 2	2 1	2

In the first row of the table we wrote 1 byte of information, namely “10110111”. In order to understand what number is encoded by this byte, it is necessary to raise two to the power corresponding to the digit of each bit from right to left, starting from the zero digit. If in any bit of the byte there is a bit containing “0” (in this case, these are the third and sixth bits), then this bit does not need to be summed. Thus, the number we encoded in 1 byte is 183. Accordingly, the maximum number will look like this: 11111111 and will be equal to 256.

Other units of information

After we have figured out that 1 byte consists of 8 bits, it is worth studying the following “high” units of measurement. They are formed by prefixes to a byte from SI (system international),

• Kilo,
• Mega,
• Giga,
• Tera.

The difficulty here is that when moving from one prefix to another, it is necessary to use a multiple of 1024, and not 1000, accepted in physical units of measurement. Accordingly, 1 kilobyte contains 1024 bytes, and to convert megabytes into bytes, you will need to multiply the volume of information in MB twice by 1024. Answering the question of what 1 gigabyte is equal to in bytes, you will need to divide the volume of bytes by 1024 three times.

Table of information units

In order to quickly navigate units of information and be able to quickly convert megabytes into gigabytes, you can use the following table units of information:

	Bit	Byte	Kilobyte	MB	Gigabyte
Bit	1	8	8192	8338608	8589934592
Byte	8	1	1024	1048576	1073741824
Kilobyte	8192	1024	1	1024	1048576
Megabyte	8338608	1048576	1024	1	1024
Gigabyte	8589934592	1073741824	1048576	1024	1
Calculation of units of information from bit to gigabyte

By intersecting rows and columns, you can find out how many bytes are in a kilobyte and even convert gigabytes to bits.

A common mistake when choosing a tariff plan

Any Internet provider that provides you with access to the Internet offers a choice of a large number of tariffs. In this case, the Internet connection speed is designated as “Mb/s” or “mbps”, which means “megabit per second”, while a large number of people mistakenly take this designation for “megabyte per second”, and thus get the speed at the output Internet connections are 8 times slower. Now you know how many megabits are in a megabyte and you can easily convert megabytes to megabits. For convenience, you can use a special byte converter to convert bytes.

Thus, if in tariff plan The Internet connection speed is indicated as 40mbps, then when downloading files from the Internet, you will have a speed of 5 MB per second. After all, files downloaded from the network are measured in bytes, not in bits. The whole point here is that when receiving and transmitting data on the Internet, you constantly send and receive code, and as you already know, encoding is carried out using bits, so your Internet provider is forced to indicate the speed of the Internet connection in megabits (mbps), forcing you to convert megabits to megabytes. To find out how many kilobytes mobile internet provided by your operator, you need to read the relevant charging documents.

How long does it take to download a file?

When downloading audio, video and other files from the Internet, you need to understand how long it will take to receive this data. For example, an average full-length film in HD quality with good dubbing will have a size of about 5 gigabytes. It’s easy to calculate that 5 gigabytes = 5120 MB = 40960 megabits. All that remains is to divide the file size in megabits by the Internet connection speed in the same megabits. In the case of an Internet connection of 40 Mbit/s, downloading the file will take 1024 seconds, which is just over 17 minutes.

Now you are familiar with how many bytes are in a megabyte, answering that there are 1048576 bytes in 1 megabyte, and you can easily convert kilobits to megabits.

Not only a school computer science course requires knowledge of how many kilobytes are in a megabyte. Modern conditions pose ordinary users The Internet is stumped by this simple question. Knowing the answer to this, we can say, for example, how many pieces of music can be placed on a certain removable media. So let's figure out how much

Initially, the unit of all computer calculations was the bit. After the volumes of information began to grow, the number of spent memory cells began to increase. It just so happens that 1 Byte = 8 bits. For certain reasons, you just have to remember this. Further, for people who know mathematics or physics, it will be a little clearer. The word "kilobyte" was formed using a prefix, which, in turn, means 10^3. From here we get that 1 kb = 1024 bytes. It’s not worth delving into where the last two digits came from, since they are not of the greatest importance. So, we have come close to answering the question of how many kilobytes are in a megabyte.

Let us turn again to the general knowledge that was united by the science of “Natural Science”, which was divided into several parts. She knows another prefix “Mega”, which means 10^6 (or a million in another way). That is, relative to a byte, 1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes. This is the most common value today that characterizes the size of many files. However, it is worth saying that a relative transition to other amounts of occupied memory is possible soon, which will entail a transition to other set-top boxes as the main ones. Using the method of logic and a little natural knowledge, we found out how many bytes are in a megabyte. There are about a million of them.

The time has come to turn to the main question, the answer to which we have gradually approached. First, a minute of math:

1 kb = 1024 b;

1 MB = 1000000 b;

1 MB = 1000 kb.

Now, using a mathematical method, the answer to the question of how many kilobytes are in a megabyte has been given. As you can see, there is nothing special here. Ordinary calculations will help you in difficult situations. In order not to be unfounded, let's look at an example of a common school problem.

Let's assume your disk has free place at 200 MB. And you need to place text files of 700 KB in size on it. Their number should tend to infinity (this is the condition), but it is limited by size. The question is simple: how many documents can you save?

The solution looks like this. To begin with, you remember how many kilobytes are in a megabyte. At this stage, the correct thought should come to mind that 1 MB = 1024 KB. Then you realize that you have 200*1024 = 204800 KB at your disposal. This number is divided by the size of the files. That is, n = = 292. Square brackets indicate the integer part of the number, since the file can only be inserted in its entirety without changing its size. The answer is the number n. This simple example only shows how in practice you can apply knowledge about how many kilobytes are in a megabyte.

Thus, you have received the answer to the question posed earlier. It illustrates that there is nothing complicated about computers. Everything that is connected with them can be calculated using not the most profound knowledge.

If you are wondering how many megabytes are in one gigabyte, check out the table below. Next, we will discuss how these units of measurement are formed, and by what principle the conversion should be made.

Information is data in various forms that can be perceived by people or special devices as a reflection of the material world that arises in the process of communication. For many it will be strange that information can be measured. Indeed, this is so, and let’s try to figure out how bits differ from bytes and what’s what.

The first thing that needs to be said is that most people use the decimal number system, which has been familiar since school. But in the case of information, a binary system will be used, which is represented as 0 and 1. Most often, this mechanism is used specifically in working with computer equipment, as a rule, we are talking about the volume of hard drives or random access memory.

Why is the actual and declared capacity of hard drives different?

Many hard drive manufacturers often use this confusion. The declared capacity of the hard drive that the user purchased is, say, 500 gigabytes. But in fact, when it has already been installed and prepared for work, it turns out that its total volume fluctuates in the range of 450-460 gigabytes.

And the whole trick is that, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, the amount of RAM, like all its other types, uses a binary calculation system. And manufacturers use decimal. This gives them the opportunity to allegedly “increase” memory by about 10 percent. Although in fact, buyers are simply misled.

Let's talk about number systems

The smallest unit of information will be a bit, which represents the amount of information contained in a message, halving the uncertainty of knowledge about any subject. It is followed by a byte, which is considered the basic unit of measurement. By the way, it should be noted here that the speed of information transfer is measured in bits. We are talking about kilobits, megabits and so on. By the way, many people confuse megabits and megabytes. Contrary to popular belief, these are completely different concepts and meanings. Speed ​​will be measured in bits transferred per second, but not in bytes.

The binary number system, as mentioned above, is presented in the form of zeros and ones. A piece of information is a bit and can take the value either zero or one and nothing else. This is exactly what the beat will be. A byte, again, as mentioned, will consist of eight bits, if we talk specifically about the binary number system. Moreover, each will be written as 2 to a certain degree from 0 to 7. If you try to show it more simply, it will look like: 11101001.

This is a clear example of 256 combinations, which are encoded in a byte. But this is difficult for users, because they are used to seeing everything through the prism of the decimal system. So let's translate this, which requires simply adding all the powers of two where we have ones. To do this, we need to take 2 to the power of 0 + 2 to the power of 3 + 2 to the power of 5 + 2 to the power of 6 + 2 to the power of 7.

Another important point is the nibble or nibble as it is called. This is half a byte, that is, 4 bits. As a rule, any number from 0 to 15 can be encoded in it.

Inconsistencies in bits and bytes

As mentioned above, the information transfer rate is measured in bits. But recently, the measurement even in famous programs carried out in bytes. Although this is not entirely true, it is still possible. The translation in this case will be quite simple:

• 1 byte = 8 bits;
• 1 kilobyte = 8 kilobits;
• 1 megabyte = 8 megabits.

If the user needs to make a reverse translation, then they simply need to divide the required number by 8.

Another problem will be that the byte system itself has a number of inconsistencies that cause users problems with conversions to mega, giga, terabytes, and so on. The point here is that from the very beginning, in order to denote units of information that are larger than bytes, terms that relate to the decimal system rather than the binary system are used. For example, the prefix “tera” means multiplying by 10 to the 12th power, giga by 10 to the 9, mega by 10 to the 6, and so on.

It is for this reason that confusion arises. It would be logical to assume that 1 kilobyte is equal to 1000 bytes, but this is not the case. It will have 1024 bytes.

In general, as you can see, there are certain difficulties, but if you understand them, it will quickly become clear that there is nothing difficult about this.