In what units is information measured?
Transmitting absolutely any information, a person encodes it in one way or another. For example, human thoughts are conveyed through words. Important scientific truths are encrypted using formulas. A formula is a kind of mathematical code. The deaf and dumb have their own "code" - it is a sign language, a language understandable for any musician - these are notes, and so on.
A computer cannot read and write as a person can. Consequently, the machine also needs representation, information coding. It is mathematically proven that any information from the material world is very simple to represent as a sequence of numbers 1 and 0. These are binary numbers or bits. This choice is far from accidental, since this method of encoding information is technically very simple to organize: 1 - there is a signal, 0 - there is no signal. The disadvantage of this method is that the codes are very long. However, it turned out that the technique "understands" a large number of simple signals much better than a small number of complex ones.
In the 60s of the last century, when IBM developed a series of third-generation computers, they adopted the standard for measuring the amount of information and memory - bytes. A byte is a sequence of 8 binary digits, or bits. Thus, one byte is equal to eight bits.
As we said above, one bit can be either 0 or 1. For example, using two bits, you can encrypt exactly four values: 00, 01, 10, 11. The value of the entire byte depends on the positions that units occupy in it and zeros. It is not hard to guess what the number of different combinations of bits in one byte is equal to: 28 = 256. Thus, a code with a length of one byte can be equal to one of 256 different values.
You can encode anything with bytes and bits, but the easiest way to do this is for characters and numbers. One byte is enough to encode one character. It takes two or four bytes to encode an integer, and a valid one needs 4, 6 or 8 bytes.
The next unit for measuring the amount of information is 1 Kilobyte = 1024 bytes. Typically, one sector of the disk fits 0.5 Kilobytes or 512 bytes of information. The amount of information that can be written to the now obsolete data carrier, a floppy disk, is equal to 1440 Kilobytes.
The next kilobyte is the megabyte. 1 Megabyte is equal to 1024 Kilobytes, or 1024 * 1024 = 1048576 bytes. The RAM of computers is measured in Megabytes, in the same units the volume of the first hard disks was measured. To measure the volume of modern storage media, much larger storage media are used - Gigabytes and Terabytes. One gigabyte has 1024 megabytes, one terabyte has 1024 gigabytes.
Attention!!
Sometimes, instead of kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes, received as powers of two, units are used the same in writing and sounding, but the meaning of which is different: these are powers of 10. According to this logic, 1 kilobyte = 103 bytes = 1000 bytes. To understand what and when is used, we agreed that a kbyte, for example, is a power of 10 (kbytes with a small letter). KB (with a capital letter) is a proper name and a degree of 2.
How many Kilobits to Megabits
There are 1024 Kilobits in one megabit. So, to convert megabits to kilobits, you need to multiply megabits by 1024.
In today's article, we will focus on measuring information. All pictures, sounds and video clips that we see on the screens of monitors are nothing more than numbers. And these numbers can be measured, and, now, you will learn how to convert megabits to megabytes and megabytes to gigabytes.
If it is important for you to know how much 1 GB is in or how much is 1 MB, then this article is for you. Most often, such data is needed by programmers who estimate the volume occupied by their programs, but sometimes it does not bother ordinary users to estimate the size of downloaded or stored data.
In short, it is enough to know this:
1 byte = 8 bits
1 kilobyte = 1024 bytes
1 megabyte = 1024 kilobytes
1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes
1 terabyte = 1024 gigabytes
Common abbreviations: kilobyte = kb, megabyte = mb, gigabyte = gb.
Recently I got a question from my reader: "What is more kb or mb?" Hopefully now everyone knows the answer.
Information units in detail
In the information world, not the decimal measurement system, which is familiar to us, is used, but the binary one. This means that one digit can take on a value not from 0 to 9, but from 0 to 1.
The simplest unit of information measurement is 1 bit, it can be 0 or 1. But this value is very small for the modern amount of data, therefore, bits are rarely used. More often, bytes are used, 1 byte is equal to 8 bits and can take a value from 0 to 15 (hexadecimal number system). True, instead of numbers 10-15, letters from A to F are used.
But even these amounts of data are not large, therefore, the usual prefixes kilo- (thousand), mega- (million), giga- (billion) are used.
It is worth noting that in the infoworld, a kilobyte is not 1000 bytes, but 1024. And if you want to know how many kilobytes are in a megabyte, you will also get the number 1024. When asked how many megabytes are in a gigabyte, you will hear the same answer - 1024.
This is also determined by a feature of the binary number system. If, when using tens, we get each new digit by multiplying by 10 (1, 10, 100, 1000, etc.), then in the binary system a new digit appears after multiplying by 2.
It looks like this:
2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024
A 10-digit binary number can only have 1024 values. This is more than 1000, but it is closest to the usual kilo prefix. Mega and giga and tera are used in the same way.
If you didn’t have computer science at school or college, or you safely skipped classes where you were explaining the basics, you may get confused in units of measurement. And, perhaps, you are ashamed to admit this to acquaintances and friends, so as not to seem ignorant.
No problem! This article will help you figure out, for example, what is more megabytes or gigabytes, so as not only not to be ashamed of gaps in your education, but also to freely navigate the files that are stored or are just about to settle in your computer.
A computer is an artificial intelligence created by humans. And unlike us, a computer processes information in a special way, it naturally does not have nerve cells, feelings and sensations, and much more that is inherent in humans. He perceives information in numbers using the binary system, namely the numbers 0 and 1.
The smallest unit of measurement for information processing is a bit.
Bit is either zero or one, it is formed in semiconductor transistors, which are switches. Under the influence of impulses, the transistor can close or open, that is, turn on or off. When it is on, it is one, if there is no signal, it is zero. The central processing unit is a brain made of millions of transistors, just like the human brain is made of neurons. The processor consists of silicon crystals, each of which can accommodate up to a million of these transistors.
But when these eight small "particles" -bits are added to larger blocks, they become "elegant" bytes.
Byte (eng. Byte) - an ordered set, a collection of bits that the computer processes at the same time. One byte is not only equal to 8 bits, but is necessarily a multiple of two. True, there are other computing systems, but these are non-standard systems that we will not consider, we will leave this to the professors of computer science.
The more bytes a processor processes per unit of time, the higher its speed.
Next, let's figure out the prefixes... You probably have heard of kilobits, megabits, gigabytes, and so on. If you understand what a bit and a byte are, then it will be much easier further. To understand for yourself what is more megabytes or gigabytes, you need to understand the meanings of prefixes.
Of course, there is a generally accepted system and corresponding tables with designations of units of measurement of computer information. But it often happens that an ordinary user, having run through it with his eyes, after a while forgets all this information and again wonders what is more and what is less.
Kilo - 1 thousand. Think about the kilogram, this association will help you.
Mega - 1 million. To make it easier to remember: mega is a thousand thousand.
Giga - 1 billion. One followed by 9 zeros, comes from the word "giant".
Accordingly, adding these prefixes to the bits and bytes already known to us, we get the values that everyone has heard and now we can distinguish what is more and what is less.
But not everything is so simple. We are dealing with a binary system, not a decimal system that ordinary people are used to, not programmers. Therefore, for example, 1 kilobyte will not be equal to 1000 bytes, but will be equal to 2 10, which is equal to 1024. If you forgot your elementary school course, then this is a two raised to the 10th power or multiplied by itself 10 times. Picture for clarity.
The numbers 256 and 512 clearly resemble something, don't they? Right, these are common amounts of RAM... And now it is clear why these are exactly such numbers, and not any others.
And here is a table of the values of units of measurement adopted in computer science, which every programmer is able to read from memory, even if he is woken up in the middle of the night.
Now it becomes clear what is more megabytes or gigabytes, and what is less than kilobytes or the same megabyte.
In order to see the size of the file, you need to right-click on it and open the properties, there you will see how much space it takes on your hard disk.
Modern computers are so smart that they can use bits and bytes to process different types of information, both numerical and textual, graphic, as well as video and sound. That is why we can enjoy watching movies, high-quality images on our PCs, exchange emails, write messages on social networks, listen to music and share all this with other people, without thinking about those microscopic transistors that allow us to do this.
Many people can no longer imagine their life without computers, tablets and PDAs. We use them every day, considering them to be something commonplace, without even thinking that even some 100 years ago computers did not exist at all.
Let's remember the kind words of the English mathematician Charles Babbage, who conceived the creation of a computing machine at the end of the 19th century, as well as German and American scientists who implemented this idea in the 40s of the last century by launching the world's first computer weighing 28 tons. And let's not forget to remember the great American engineer and mathematician Claude Shannon - the founder of the theory of computer science, who in 1948 introduced such a concept as "bit".
From this article you will find out how many bits are in one byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte.
If you have dealt with a storage medium, then you have probably heard of bits, bytes, megabytes, gigabytes or terabytes. But not all people know how these units of measurement are related. This is known to professionals in the field of IT-technologies and simply advanced people who are familiar with digital information.
We are accustomed to calculating values in decimal systems of calculation, and if there is a prefix "kilo", then we need to multiply by a thousand. But when measuring digital information, there is a different system of calculation.
So how many bits are there in a byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte? But first, it's worth figuring out what a bit or byte is and other units of measurement.
Often users ask themselves the question: which is more: kilobyte or megabyte, or gigabyte, or terabyte?
From the above information, it can be seen that the largest amount of memory is calculated in terabytes, and the smallest in bits.
The conversion table from bytes to kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes or terabytes is most readable.
Now you know that a megabyte is more than a kilobyte, but less than a gigabyte. The largest unit of measurement is a terabyte.
Currently, IT specialists know other units of measurement such as petabyte, exabyte, zettabyte and yottabyte. But the most popular for measuring memory are bits, bytes, kilo-, mega-, giga- and terabytes.
If you have at hand a table for converting large units to smaller ones, then just calculate what it will equal, for example, 2 megabytes or gigabytes. Exact conversion result:
- 1 MB = 8388608 bits
- 1 GB = 8589934592 bits
- 2 MB = 16777216 bits
- 2 GB = 17179869184 bits
Another common question among users of the global network: which is more megabytes or gigabytes for the Internet? More often it is the gigabyte that is used to measure the amount of information on the Internet. To understand which is more, you need to turn to the numbers. A gigabyte is larger than a megabyte and is equal to 1024 MB.
If you cannot understand which unit of measurement is larger and which is smaller, remember meters and centimeters. In one meter there is 100 cm, as well as in gigabytes, a certain number of megabytes, but not a hundred, but much more.
Video: 08 bit byte number system
If you are wondering how many megabytes are in one gigabyte, see the table below. Next, we will discuss how these units of measurement are formed, and by what principle it is necessary to translate the conversion.
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 we will try to figure out how bits differ from bytes and what's what.
The first thing to say is that most people use the decimal numbering system, which has been familiar since school. But in the case of information, a binary system will be used, which is represented in the form of 0 and 1. Most often, this mechanism is used precisely in working with computer equipment, as a rule, we are talking about the volume of hard drives or RAM.
Why are the real and declared capacities of hard drives different?
Many hard drive manufacturers use this confusion frequently. The declared capacity of the hard drive that the user purchased is, say, 500 gigabytes. But in fact, when it was already 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, use a binary calculation system. And manufacturers use decimal. This gives them the opportunity to allegedly "increase" memory, somewhere by 10 percent. Although in reality, buyers are simply misled.
Let's talk about calculus systems
The smallest unit of information will be a bit, which is 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 information transfer rate 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. The speed will be measured exactly in bits transmitted per second, but not in bytes.
The binary number system, as already mentioned above, is represented in the form of zeros and ones. A piece of information is a bit and can take on the value of either zero or one and nothing else. This is what the beat will be. A byte, again, as mentioned, will consist of eight bits, if we talk specifically about the binary system of calculation. And each will be written as 2 to a certain extent from 0 to 7. If you try to show it in a simpler way, it will look like: 11101001.
This is an illustrative 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 number system. So let's translate this, for which you just need to add all powers of two where we have ones. To do this, we need to take 2 to the power 0 + 2 to the power 3 + 2 to the power 5 + 2 to the power 6 + 2 to the power 7.
Another important point is the nibble or as it is called nibble. This is half a byte, which is 4 bits. As a rule, any number from 0 to 15 can be encoded in it.
Mismatches in bits and bytes
As mentioned above, the information transfer rate is measured in bits. But recently, even in well-known programs, measurement is carried out in bytes. Although this is not entirely true, it is still possible. The translation in this case will be pretty simple:
- 1 byte = 8 bits;
- 1 kilobyte = 8 kilobits;
- 1 megabyte = 8 megabits.
If the user needs to make a reverse translation, then he just needs to divide the desired number by 8.
Another problem will be that the byte system itself has a number of inconsistencies that cause users problems with translations to mega, giga, terabytes, and so on. The point here is that from the very beginning of its appearance, in order to designate units of information that are larger than bytes, terms have been used that refer to the decimal system, and not to the binary. For example, the prefix "tera" means multiplication by 10 to the 12th power, giga - by 10 to 9, mega - by 10 to 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, certain difficulties exist, but if you understand them, it will quickly become clear that there is nothing difficult about this.
