Techies: Why does a megabyte have 1024 bytes and not 1000?

Question

Excuse my ignorance but if a kilogram has 1000 gramms and a kilometre 1000 metres etc, how come a kilobyte is not 1000 bytes and a megabyte is the unusual number 1024....?

Answer 1

Although the above two answers logic is correct, it is still WRONG!



1 kilobyte = 1024 bytes

1 Megabyte = 1024 kilobytes (NOT 1024 bytes as stated!!)

Thus, 1 Megabyte = 1024 * 1024 = 1,048,576 bytes.

Kilo = Thousand, Mega= Million.

Firstly, one need to differentiate between Bits and Bytes. These two terms are often confused as to being the same thing, but they are not equal.

When talking about data communication, one uses bits, as in bits per second. 1000 Bits = 1 Kilobit.

When talking about data storage (RAM, Hard drive), one uses bytes, as in 512 Megabytes. 1024 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte (base 2 i.e. 2^8, 2^9 etc) Reason for the 1024 is the base 2 numbering system.

The relationship between Bits and Bytes is:

8 Bits = 1 Byte.

Base 2 (binary) consists of 1s and 0s. For example, your electronic gate remote most probably consist of a bunch of switches inside, which can either be on (1) or off (0). Say you have 10 switches, this then means there are 2^10=1024 possible combinations. So the possibility of "guessing" the right combination for a certain gate motor is very slim.  

Lastly: There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't.

Answer 2

JX gave you the most correct explanation. 10=2 in binary.

Answer 3

The reason for this is because computers are based on the binary system. (2 to the power of 10 is 1024)

Answer 4

Everything works in multipals of 2.

For eg: 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 264 512 1024 2048 and so it goes on.

Answer 5

LOL - Pass the "chips" you guys are making me hungry....