Metric Bytes

[InfinateX]

I know the title probably sounds stupid, but hear me out. The other day we started learning the metric and imperial systems in my math class, and I suddenly realised that the metric system was used to measure data sizes, but they skipped up to kilo, and I was wondering if people ever measure things using those skipped units. It sounds kinda stupid, but have you ever thought of this as well?

[T.Vengeance]

I'm confused? Kilobyte?

 

Edit: Nevermind, read your post incorrectly...

 

As to what you said, no I actually never wondered if people measure with those skipped units since we don't really measure in decimetres or decametres. I guess normally stuff isn't measured with "deca or deci" prefix cause we can use .1 instead. Like it's seconds, then miliseconds. So I guess it goes the same for data sizes.

[InfinateX]

I'm confused? Kilobyte?

The measuring of data general goes:

byte

kilobyte

megabyte

gigabyte

terabyte

petabyte

exabyte

 

As you can see, there is no unit such as a decabyte. (Just as an example)

 

I was just thinknig about this for a while and got curious if other people keyed in on the same idea.

[Blade of Grass]

The Kilogram is the only base unit with a prefix. 

[Art Vandelay]

Bytes aren't actually measured in the metric system. A kilobyte is 1024 bytes.

[bradscoolio]

You can't use a measurement of physical size to measure data :P

[InfinateX]

 

The Kilogram is the only base unit with a prefix. 

I was only talking about bytes, not the whole Metric System.

 

Bytes aren't actually measured in the metric system. A kilobyte is 1024 bytes.

I thought they were just 1000. So they're based on the Metric System, but they're a bit off. That does explain why some calculations in windows seem inaccurate when measured in bytes.

 

You can't use a measurement of physical size to measure data :P

I know. I thought it used the same pricipals, but as Art pointed out, it's slightly irregular.

[Cruiseshipfan]

Some of the units are skipped to make things simpler. This happens quite a lot with measurements, in fact I don't think I have ever seen them used. Also yes as stated above Bytes are not measured directly to the metric system. However, sometimes it is. Storage devices regularly say 1GB = 1000MB, however operating systems say 1GB = 1024MB. 

 

Nothing s really metric in computers. As even bytes are 8 bits, and a nibble is 4 bits. 

[Blade of Grass]

You can't use a measurement of physical size to measure data :P

Yes you can. But unless you have very accurate equipment, it's ineffective. 

[InfinateX]

Some of the units are skipped to make things simpler. This happens quite a lot with measurements, in fact I don't think I have ever seen them used. Also yes as stated above Bytes are not measured directly to the metric system. However, sometimes it is. Storage devices regularly say 1GB = 1000MB, however operating systems say 1GB = 1024MB. 

I'm aware that they skip some. I was just pointing out that they are absolutely never used. It's kind of like centilitres or hectameters. Nobody uses those measurements, but they could if they wanted.

[Cruiseshipfan]

I'm aware that they skip some. I was just pointing out that they are absolutely never used. It's kind of like centilitres or hectameters. Nobody uses those measurements, but they could if they wanted.

They could but it just makes it more complicated. 

[Art Vandelay]

 

 

I thought they were just 1000. So they're based on the Metric System, but they're a bit off. That does explain why some calculations in windows seem inaccurate when measured in bytes.

 

Yeah, I believe that's the reason that Hard Drive size measurements always are smaller than their advertised size.

[Ziommm]

We only use these "metric" prefixes to ease communication with big numbers, thus the common saying is what defines the way you should say it.

 

Why we never use "deca" when describing bytes ? I guess it's because when we started using these prefixes, we jumped pretty fast to hard drives with >1MB on the consumer market. So people never had the time or need to use "deca".

[pierrelucsav]

kilobyte = 1000 bytes

kibibyte = 1024 bytes

[Night]

1 Kilobyte Weighs 1 Kilogram.

[KaareKanin]

Bytes aren't actually measured in the metric system. A kilobyte is 1024 bytes.

That is wrong. Yes, I know, windows does it like this, but its still wrong

Kilo = 1000 (10^3). You can't change that, so 1kB is 1000B. This is the way HDD manufacturers measure drive sizes.

The way windows does it is that they "simplify" the maths by saing that 1kB = 2^10 B= 1024B. This is known as KiB, but often wrongly described as kB

This is why there's a difference between what windows reports your drive space to be and what the manufacturer claimed it was. Other OSes tends to get the maths right though

[SubTract]

"Dec" is 10,

Decimal is base 10,

Decahedron is a 10 sided shape,

Decimate is to destroy 1/10th

Bits are binary

Bytes are made of 8 bits meaning there is no relation to 10 alas no decabyte

[Hyydrah]

The measuring of data general goes:

byte

kilobyte

megabyte

gigabyte

terabyte

petabyte

exabyte

 

As you can see, there is no unit such as a decabyte. (Just as an example)

 

I was just thinknig about this for a while and got curious if other people keyed in on the same idea.

I think that it's technically correct to refer to a quantity as x number of, say, decabytes, but is just impractical since the difference between a kilobyte and megabyte is x1000, just as the difference between a gigabyte and terabyte is x1000.

[Hyydrah]

"Dec" is 10,

Decimal is base 10,

Decahedron is a 10 sided shape,

Decimate is to destroy 1/10th

Bits are binary

Bytes are made of 8 bits meaning there is no relation to 10 alas no decabyte

There is a relation. 80 bytes = 8 decabytes, for instance. The problem is that the conversion doesn't necessarily result in an integer.

[SirReallySam]

It's the difference between decimal and binary... when it comes to 1000 or 1024 bytes in a kilobytes scroll down to the bottom of this

 

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte

 

and look at Prefixes for multiples of
bits or bytes

 

at the right hand side

 

As to the skipping I'm like :wacko: wahhhh does not compute

Edited June 8, 2013 by SirReallySam

[Samdb]

The measuring of data general goes:

byte

kilobyte

megabyte

gigabyte

terabyte

petabyte

exabyte

 

As you can see, there is no unit such as a decabyte. (Just as an example)

 

I was just thinknig about this for a while and got curious if other people keyed in on the same idea.

Don't forget bits and nybbles, which is four bits.

[InfinateX]

1 Kilobyte Weighs 1 Kilogram.

You sound like that person that asked if hard drives weigh more when there's more data written on them. Js.

 

 

This topic got more attention than I tohught it would :S

[Fetzie]

Centi- is used for drinks bottles and short distances. 0.75 litre wine bottles are usually labelled 75 cl (centilitre) and 1cm = 0.01m (or 10mm). A centibyte or a decibyte would be fairly pointless as nobody actually uses files that small nowadays anyway, and if you do, you just say "567 bytes", not 56.7 cB or 5.67 dB.

 

"decibyte" would also share its abbreviation with the more ubiquitous "decibel", leading to much confusion.

[Night]

You sound like that person that asked if hard drives weigh more when there's more data written on them. Js.

 

 

This topic got more attention than I tohught it would :S

A Seagate Barracuda 1TB drive weighs 400grams.

If 1KB weighed 1kg, your drive would weigh Roughly 1099511627776kg when full. Or 1099511627.776 metric tonnes. Which is 10471539.31215238 Aircraft carriers.

So...If you were to fill up ONE, 1TB drive. You break space and time.

[Fetzie]

A Seagate Barracuda 1TB drive weighs 400grams.

If 1KB weighed 1kg, your drive would weigh Roughly 1099511627776kg when full. Or 1099511627.776 metric tonnes. Which is 10471539.31215238 Aircraft carriers.

So...If you were to fill up ONE, 1TB drive. You break space and time.

Not really, Youtube's total amount of video data was just short of 9 petabytes (9000 TB) as of 2011. That would still, however, be about a 10 millionth (1.3x10^-7) of the mass of the moon (74x10^21 kg) given the proposed kB:kg conversion.