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How many bytes in a kilobyte? in a megabyte?

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Question:
How many bytes are in a kilobyte?  and how many kilobytes in a megabyte.

Answer:
Many people think that there are 1000 bytes in a kilobyte. After all, "kilo" means 1000. In most cases, this approximation is fine for determining how much space a file takes up or how much disk space you have.

But there are really 1024 bytes in a kilobyte. The reason for this is because computers are based on the binary system. That means hard drives and memory are measured in powers of 2. For example:
20 = 1
21 = 2
22 = 4
23 = 8
24 = 16
25 = 32
26 = 64
27 = 128
28 = 256
29 = 512
210 = 1024
Notice how 210 is 1024. Therefore, 210, or 1024 bytes compose one kilobyte. Furthermore, 1024 kilobytes compose one megabyte, and 1024 megabytes compose one gigabyte. For most practical purposes, you can estimate 1024 to 1000.

 
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