What is the equation to find how long it will take to download something?

Question

if i am downloading a 4GB (4,000,000 kB roughly) file at 200 kB/s, how long would it take? i don't know the equation for this, but if you can give it to me i would appreciate it.

Answer 1

4GB is the data. Data is transmitted to your machine in packets that also contain header, router and error checking bits. Add about 1/10 to the data and divide by ACTUAL download speed (NOT what you have signed up for!)

Answer 2

Simply divide!

4000000 kb / (200kb/s)

The number division works out to 20000

Now work out the units...

kb / (kb/s)

kb * (s/kb)

(kb*s) / kb

s

So the answer is 20,000 seconds.

1 min / 60 seconds becomes...

333.33 min

1 hours / 60 minutes becomes

5.556 hours

(Again, work out the units).

When trying to figure out the proper method, remember to include the units.  They should always simplify down to the units in your answer.

Size divided by (Size per Time) = Time

Answer 3

size o file/speed = time in seconds

Answer 4

I know you're asking for an equation but I just wanted to put it out there that there is no semi-accurate equation to calculate or estimate transfer times.

There's way more too it than the size of the file and the max transfer speed. Max transfer speeds vary a lot during transmission. It also starts slow and begins to gain speed over several minutes.

Then take in account for other bottlenecks such as the upload source runs low on resources, or your computer runs low on resources. And don't forget you're likely to drop network connection a LOT in the course of a day, even for a split MS.  This could cause your transfer to start at the slowest speed again.

Answer 5

size of file / rate of download = time for download

4,000,000 kB / 200kB/s = 20,000 seconds = about 5 and 1/2 hours