Is there a Computer Geek hiding inside you? Do you want to know what Bits and Bytes are about?
Then keep reading. I know you are jumping up and down with joy!
A Bit, in a computer, is the smallest piece of information. It will be a code that is either "1" or "0". Or an "on (1)" or an "off (0)". It depends on how you look at it.
Bit is short for Binary Digit. I know, that should make it a Biit but it didn't! A Bit represents "on", or "off". Let's say you want to let the world know that you are home at night. So you turn on your porch light. It means "On"...and "on" means: "I am home". If it were a computer Bit, it would be a "1", or "on".
But now you go out. So you turn the porch light off....equal to "0". Now let's say you want to let the world know you are home but you are doing your homework. What kind of binary ("Bit") code can we use? Remember On = 1, Off = 0
Hmmm. We need another porch light! So if light number one is "on" (or "1") it means you are home. Light number two can be turned on, so it is also a "1", or "on". So here are the codes so far:
Lamp one: on (The Bit is "1") = I'm home
Lamp one: off (The Bit is "0")= I'm out
Lamp two: on (The Bit is "1") = Am doing homework
So if lamp one is on and lamp two is also on, it means : I'm home and I am doing homework.
Now let's turn lamp two off, so it is now equal to "0".
Lamp two: off (The Bit is "0") = Am taking a break, ( NOT doing homework)
So now, Lamp one =1 and lamp two = 0 . That's a two Bit code, "10" (Not "ten",but a one and a zero )
And if you haven't fallen asleep reading this by now, if you look at the code, "Lamp one =1 and lamp two = 0", then it tells us that "I'm home" and "Am taking a break".
A two Bit code can tell us four things. Actually even more if we arrange the ons and offs differently but let's try to keep it simple! But you can see that arranging only one "1" and one "0", in different combinations, can give us plenty of different meanings.
Now, let's make it bigger and better!
A Byte is a group of not two Bits (digits)but 7 Bits. There are many combinations you can make of 1's and 0's, in a group of 7. Here are only four: 1111111 or 0000000 or 1110011 or 0011001. And each combination can have a different meaning.
Upsize me!
Kilobytes: All right, we have all those possibilities in just a group of 7 Bits (one Byte). Imagine -if you can - how many possible combinations there are in one thousand bytes!. We call that a KILObyte. Actually a kilobyte has 1024 bytes, not an even thousand. We usually just round it off to a "kilo" meaning "thousand." Why? There is a very boring technical explanation but let's just say it's because computer people are weird.
Now, let's make it bigger and better yet!
A Megabyte is (remember that magic number 1024?)... a megabyte is 1024 kilobytes. That's 1,048,576 bytes or 7,340,032 bits!
Oh, will it never stop?
A Gigabyte (GB) is equal to 1024 megabytes or 1,073,741,824 bytes
So far, it stops at:
Terabytes. 1024 Gigabytes? Yes! 10240000 megabytes, or a trillion bytes! But since it's such a large number, why don't we just round a Terrabyte off to mean a thousand Gigabytes?
Whew! I think I've bitten off more bits and bytes than I can chew!