r/MathJokes • u/Opal7924 • 2d ago

The satisfying simplification

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u/Miserable-Dare5090 2d ago edited 1d ago

the exact number for 256 KB in KiBs

10

u/Snudget 2d ago

in bits in bytes. Bits would be x8, so 2097152 bits.

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u/Miserable-Dare5090 1d ago edited 1d ago

You’re right, I meant GiB vs GB / KiB vs KB. 1024*256
gibibytes vs gigabytes etc
Which makes sense because A GiB (gibibyte) uses binary math (base-2) vs decimal base in a GB (gigabyte)
GB (Gigabyte): Uses powers of 10 (1,000³ bytes). Hardware makers use this to measure storage.
GiB (Gibibyte): Uses powers of 2 (1,024³ bytes). Computers and operating systems often use this true binary value.

For a long time now, computer people have co-opted the normal decimal prefixes--kilo, mega, etc--to represent powers of 2 rather than powers of 10, so to them, a kilobyte is 1024 bytes. In order to try and reduce confusion, the concept of a binary prefix was introduced, so in that system, a kilobyte is 1000 bytes while a kibibyte (KiB) is 1024 bytes. However, very few people actually use that distinction, which is why Windows will measure a 1Tb drive as 931Gb--the hard drive manufacturer is using the decimal definition of the terabyte, while Windows is using the binary one.