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Informally, many people think of a Kb as 1000 bytes, a Mb as 1000 Kb, a Gb as 1000 Mb, a Tb as 1000 Gb.

But technically, these are all powers of 2.

So a Kb is 2 to the 10th power = 1024 bytes
A Mb is 2 to the 20th (1024 x 1024) = 1,048,576 bytes, or 1024Kb
A Gb is 2 to the 30th (1024 x 1024 x 1024) = a large number of bytes, or 1024Mb
A Tb is 2 to the 40th (1024 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024) = a really large number of bytes, or 1024Gb

Where you get the 1024 vs. 1000 apparent discrepancy is from the meanings of "kilo" (times 1 thousand), "mega" (times 1 million), "giga" (times 1 thousand million), etc.

So a "kilogram" is "1000 grams". A "megaton" is 1000000 tons. But a "kilobyte" is 1024 bytes. Not confusing at all, huh? This is because us engineers like things nice and neat, in powers of two. So we mandated that since a "byte" is kind of engineering-computer-geek-like, it would have to follow the powers of two rule, rather than the standard counting rule.

If you ask a normal person to count, they go: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10"

If you ask an engineer/computer geek to count, they go: "0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024"
 
Good point, but just a bit of minutea, when the lowercase b is used after the first letter it actually stands for bit or bits not byte or bytes. a bit is 1/8 of a byte so a Kilobit or Kb is actually 1/8 the size of a Kilobyte or KB since there are 8 bits / byte.

A byte (8 bits) is essentially the amount of memory it takes to store one character. Each bit is a single 0 or 1 and represents an on or off state to the circuitry in the computer for machine language. The 8 bit combination of 0's and 1's translates to a unique character in ASCII code.

If you've ever noticed when ISP's advertise they abbreviate to Kbps (today) or Mbps (not so distant past). They do this to confuse people into thinking that this is Kilobytes per second when in actuality it is Kilobits / second - an eighth of the actual speed that they think they are getting.
 
Daris,

Absolutely no worries for you and me... we're American. We don't believe in the metric system remember? We also don't believe in using anything but base 12 measurements. We only do base 10 number systems in money. So base 2 (binary) numbers are not even going to register with us. ;) :p
 
Wait a minute, are you telling me you use the Amish measuring method? That's where you stand back and use your thumb and look at the gap you need to measure then try and figure out how many thumbs that is on whatever you need to cut? I've seen that done on so many jobsites, I'd have to take off my socks to count them all. :)
 
Wait a minute, are you telling me you use the Amish measuring method? That's where you stand back and use your thumb and look at the gap you need to measure then try and figure out how many thumbs that is on whatever you need to cut? I've seen that done on so many jobsites, I'd have to take off my socks to count them all. :)

I’ve seen that done here. Dang near crapped myself thinking ‘Really’. Funny thing is the Amish are known for their fine hand crafted furniture. You ever seen a house framed by them? The Mexicans have them beat because at least they drive so they don’t have to leave when the Yoder toter shows up at 5.
 
We have some of the largest Amish communities outside of Pennsylvania all around Fort Wayne. We have multiple flooring dealers who really do nothing but service the Amish. So yes, I've seen that done more than I can really count. You are exactly right. They can do master work and do have many craftsmen, but the guys that do general construction and framing are pretty scary. We have them in the shop buying tools quite often.
 

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