107k views
1 vote
How many binary digits(i.e. bits) does it take to represent one byte?

1 Answer

1 vote

Final answer:

One byte consists of eight binary digits, or bits. Bytes are used to measure computer memory, and larger data sizes are expressed in kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes, and terabytes, with each higher unit being a multiple of 1024 of the lower unit.

Step-by-step explanation:

To represent one byte, it takes eight binary digits, or bits. A byte is the basic unit of computer memory, and each byte consists of 8 bits. This means that the byte can represent 256 different values (28), ranging from 0 to 255 in decimal format. For example, the binary sequence '01000001' represents the decimal number 65, which is also the ASCII code for the uppercase letter 'A'.

When it comes to larger quantities of data, multiplicative prefixes are used such as kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), and terabytes (TB). Each level is based on a power of 1024. Specifically, one kilobyte is 1024 bytes, one megabyte is approximately one million bytes or precisely 1024 kilobytes, one gigabyte is 1024 megabytes, and one terabyte is 1024 gigabytes. Hence, when referring to computer storage space, these units help describe the amount of data that can be stored.

User Vincent Ducroquet
by
8.4k points