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Storage Device - Uinit of Information Question

The document provides a comprehensive overview of units of digital information, explaining the distinction between bits and bytes, and detailing conversions between various units such as kilobits, megabits, and terabits. It includes examples and exercises for converting digital information units, as well as practical applications for determining suitable units for different types of data. Additionally, it features a challenge problem related to data transfer rates and file sizes.

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9 views3 pages

Storage Device - Uinit of Information Question

The document provides a comprehensive overview of units of digital information, explaining the distinction between bits and bytes, and detailing conversions between various units such as kilobits, megabits, and terabits. It includes examples and exercises for converting digital information units, as well as practical applications for determining suitable units for different types of data. Additionally, it features a challenge problem related to data transfer rates and file sizes.

Uploaded by

tharags
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Units of Digital Information Walkthrough

Worksheet
Prior Knowledge
• Converting between units of measurement
• Using notation in measurement

Units of Digital Information


Similar to the units of length, area, volume, mass and capacity, the digital world also has its
own set of units to explain how data is stored and transferred. When storing, downloading
or uploading information digitally, units of memory are required.
Units of memory are measured in ‘bits’ and ‘bytes’. The smallest unit of memory is called
a ‘bit’, which is abbreviated as ‘b’, and this represents the binary digits within a device. It is
important to distinguish between bits and bytes, since they both begin with the same letter.
Therefore, for bits, we use a lowercase ‘b’ and for bytes, we use an uppercase ‘B’. There are
some further units related to bits, as shown below:
• 1 ‘kilobit’ = 1 kb = 1000 bits
• 1 ‘megabit’ = 1Mb = 1000 kilobits
• 1 ‘gigabit’ = 1Gb = 1000 megabits
• 1 ‘terabit’ = 1Tb = 1000 gigabits
For larger units of memory, usually in computers, we use bytes. There are 8 bits in 1 byte.
The following units are related to bytes:
• 1 ‘kilobyte’ = 1KB = 1024 bytes or 210 bytes
• 1 ‘megabyte’ = 1MB = 1024 kilobytes or 210 kilobytes
• 1 ‘gigabyte’ = 1GB = 1024 megabytes or 210 megabytes
• 1 ‘terabyte’ = 1TB = 1024 gigabytes or 210 gigabytes
Note: When calculating with bytes, you may enter either 1024 or 210 into your calculator and
working out. 210 is given as an option since some people find this easier to remember than
1024.
The following conversion chart summarises the calculations needed to convert between
each type of digital storage unit.

÷1000 ÷1000 ÷1000 ÷1000


b Kb Mb Gb Tb
×1000 ×1000 ×1000 ×1000
÷8 ×8
÷210 ÷210 ÷210 ÷210
B kB MB GB TB
10 10 10 10
×2 ×2 ×2 ×2

210 = 1024
1 byte = 8 bits

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Units of Digital Information Walkthrough Worksheet

Example 1
Convert the following units of digital information to the unit specified. Where necessary,
round your answer to two decimal places.
a. 14b ......kb d. 269B ......kb
14 ÷ 1000 269 × 8
= 0.014kb = 2152b

b. 500Gb ......Mb e. 2MB ......b


500 × 1000 2 × 210 × 210
= 500 000Mb = 2 097 152B
2 097 152 × 8

c. 4900kB ......MB 16 777 216b

4900 ÷ 210
= 4.78515...
= 4.79MB (2d.p.)

Your Turn

1. For each of the following, use your device to research which unit of digital information
would be most suitable. Circle the correct answer.

a. Back up of an entire computer B MB GB TB


b. A single music file B MB GB TB
c. A blu-ray DVD B MB GB TB
d. One character typed B MB GB TB

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Units of Digital Information Walkthrough Worksheet
2. Draw a line to match each set of digital information units from the left-hand side (a-m)
to the right-hand side (n-z). The first one has been done for you. All units have been
rounded to two decimal places, where applicable.

a) 4MB n) 0.79B

b) 6.3Tb o) 9000GB

c) 1TB p) 1275B

d) 3Gb q) 1 048 576MB

e) 6.33b r) 4 194 304B

f) 123MB s) 0.12kB

g) 14kB t) 0.29Gb

h) 945b u) 3000Mb

i) 9TB v) 6 300 000Mb

j) 287Mb w) 0.12GB

k) 919.45b x) 6.88Gb

l) 6 881 522kb y) 14 336B

m) 10.2kb z) 0.11kB

3. Sara has 360 movies on her laptop and transfers them to a hard drive with 2TB storage.
What is the average file size of each movie in megabytes, correct to two decimal places?

Challenge: Josie wants to upload 432 songs from her laptop onto an external drive. The
external drive uploads data at a rate of 600kb/second. If each song has an average size of
3MB, how long will it take for all of the songs to be uploaded, correct to the nearest minute?

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