{"id":524524,"date":"2022-12-09T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-do-we-measure-speed-in-bits-but-space-in-bytes\/"},"modified":"2022-12-09T19:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-09T16:00:00","slug":"why-do-we-measure-speed-in-bits-but-space-in-bytes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-do-we-measure-speed-in-bits-but-space-in-bytes\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why Do We Measure Speed in Bits, But Space in Bytes?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3d82768952b\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3d82768952b\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-do-we-measure-speed-in-bits-but-space-in-bytes\/#%E2%80%9CWhy_Do_We_Measure_Speed_in_Bits_But_Space_in_Bytes%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Why Do We Measure Speed in Bits, But Space in Bytes?&#8221;<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-do-we-measure-speed-in-bits-but-space-in-bytes\/#Megabits_vs_Megabytes_Whats_the_Difference\" >Megabits vs. Megabytes: What\u2019s the Difference?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-do-we-measure-speed-in-bits-but-space-in-bytes\/#Why_Measure_Speed_in_Megabits_and_Storage_in_Megabytes\" >Why Measure Speed in Megabits and Storage in Megabytes?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-do-we-measure-speed-in-bits-but-space-in-bytes\/#Just_Use_the_Rule_of_Eight\" >Just Use the Rule of Eight<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CWhy_Do_We_Measure_Speed_in_Bits_But_Space_in_Bytes%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Why Do We Measure Speed in Bits, But Space in Bytes?&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<!-- UNCACHED CONTENT --><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"type:primaryImage size-full wp-image-851304\" data-pagespeed-no-defer=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/shutterstock_306954659.jpg?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"An internet speed test showing a 58 megabits per second rating.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"type:primaryImage imagecredit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/fast-internet-connection-306954659\">Tomislav Pinter\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Since the bit is the smallest universal unit of binary data, it makes sense to measure network transmission speed in this unit. Storage and memory devices are based on the eight-bit byte, so it makes more sense to measure them that way.<\/p>\n<p>Your internet connection speed is measured in megabits per second, but your computer\u2019s SSD space is measured in megabytes. Both of these units measure an amount of binary data, so why not just use one or the other for everything?<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Megabits_vs_Megabytes_Whats_the_Difference\"><\/span>Megabits vs. Megabytes: What\u2019s the Difference?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A bit or \u201cbinary digit\u201d is the smallest piece of information in a binary computer system. A bit can be either a one or a zero, and bits are represented in many different ways: as memory cells in an SSD, as pits and lands on a Blu-ray, or as magnetic patterns on a hard drive platter.<\/p>\n<p>A megabit is a million bits, which is equivalent to 125 Kilobytes. In other words, a single megabyte contains eight megabits worth of data. So, in theory, a 1000 Mbps (Megabits per second) network connection can transfer 125 MB\/s (Megabytes per second) worth of data.<\/p>\n<p>Mbps and Mb\/s refer to Megabits, and MBps and MB\/s refer to megabytes. So it\u2019s not hard to see why so many people confuse the two, leading to them significantly over- or under-estimating the speed of something.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Why_Measure_Speed_in_Megabits_and_Storage_in_Megabytes\"><\/span>Why Measure Speed in Megabits and Storage in Megabytes?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to see im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>tely why you\u2019d choose either megabits or megabytes for a given measurement. After all, when you transfer a file in Windows, the measurement shown is in MB\/s and not Mbps. So it\u2019s not as if you can\u2019t measure data transfer speeds in the larger unit.<\/p>\n<p>However, a byte is a specific arrangement of bits that\u2019s part of a particular standard. Bits are universal to every binary computer system. Even if aliens developed binary computer systems, the bit would still be the fundamental unit of data. In the meantime, there are eight bits to a byte today because you need eight bits to represent every character in the ASCII encoding system. However, bytes could have been a different arbitrary number of bits.<\/p>\n<p>With network data transfer, the system isn\u2019t transferring bytes; it\u2019s transferring bits. Knowing how many raw bits can be sent and received gives you a universal measurement of network bandwidth.<\/p>\n<p>When we\u2019re talking about storage devices such as hard drives or SSDs, the drive is formatted to store data in accordance with the standard byte. A disk is not an arrangement of single bits but of 8-bit bytes. So it makes sense to measure its total storage as a multiple of this unit rather than of the bit.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, there\u2019s a unit discrepancy with hard drives as well. Hard drive manufacturers define a Kilobyte as 1000 bytes, one Megabyte as 1000 Kilobytes, and so on. Windows, on the other hand, uses groups of 1024 in line with RAM manufacturer convention.<\/p>\n<p>This is what a 1TB hard drive shows up as a 931GB drive in Windows, even though they both describe exactly the same number of bits. This underscored why measuring data transfer rate in bits is the most sensible way to do it, since arbitrary standards don\u2019t muddy the waters.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Just_Use_the_Rule_of_Eight\"><\/span>Just Use the Rule of Eight<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If you take care to double-check whether bits or bytes are being used, converting from one to the other is as easy as multiplying or dividing by eight. As long as you remember that there are eight megabits in one megabyte, you\u2019ll have a better idea of how much speed or volume you\u2019re dealing with.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED:<\/strong> <strong><em>How Much <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Download<\/a> Speed Do You Really Need?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n setTimeout(function(){\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s) } (window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n   fbq('init', '335401813750447');\n   fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  },3000);\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/814462\/why-do-we-measure-speed-in-bits-but-space-in-bytes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Why Do We Measure Speed in Bits, But Space in Bytes?&#8221; Tomislav Pinter\/Shutterstock.com Since the bit is the smallest universal unit of binary data, it makes sense to measure network transmission speed in this unit. Storage and memory devices are based on the eight-bit byte, so it makes more sense to measure them that way&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":524525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/shutterstock_306954659.jpg?height=200p&trim=2,2,2,2","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-524524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}