Units of Information Flashcards

All 8 cards in this deck

What is a bit?

The fundamental unit of information: a single binary digit, either 0 or 1. Its symbol is b.

How many bits are in a byte?

8 bits. A byte is a group of 8 bits, and its symbol is B.

List the units of information in order of size from byte upwards.

Byte (B), kilobyte (kB), megabyte (MB), gigabyte (GB), terabyte (TB). Each is 1,000 times larger than the one before.

How do you convert a quantity of bytes to the next smaller unit?
e.g. convert 3 GB into MB

Multiply by 1,000 (to go to a larger unit, divide by 1,000).
e.g. $3 \times 1000 = 3000$, so 3 GB is 3,000 MB.

How many bytes are in 1 kilobyte (kB)?

1,000 bytes. The prefix kilo means one thousand.

How many bytes are in 1 megabyte (MB)?

1,000,000 bytes (1,000 kB).

How many gigabytes are in 1 terabyte (TB)?

1,000 GB.

How do you compare two quantities of data given in different units?
e.g. 2,500 kB and 3 MB

Convert both to the same unit first, then compare.
e.g. 2,500 kB is 2.5 MB, so 3 MB is larger.