MATH Question Regarding Megabytes & Gigabytes!


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A guy on another forum I was browsing had some fake system specs in his sig. On of the items was 16 PB RAM (1 PB=1GB Square) like that. Another guy then came along and said:

"Hey.

Just reading through your system specs in your sig.

I notice that 1 PB = 1 GIG square.

Well - isn't that just the same as 1 gig then because, if I remember rightly, the square of 1 is 1."

After some confusion which other people attempting their explanations, I posted this:

If you square a number, you multiply it by itself, i.e.:

1 x 1 = 1

2 x 2 = 4

3 x 3 = 9

You cant say 1gb squared = 1gb just because 1 x 1 = 1. Instead you must convert the gigabytes to megabytes.

1gb = 1024mb

1024 squared = 1024x1024 which equals 1048576. That is the answer in MEGABYTES, so you must then convert the answer back into GB by dividing by 1024. The actual answer therefore is 1024gb, not 1.

Ok so I worked that out LOGICALLY, but mathematically, is this correct?? How much RAM would you have if you had 1gb squared?

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UT2004, right?

Instead of squaring the megabytes in a gigabyte, convert it to bytes and square it. Once that number is converted back to gigabytes the you get 1048576GB.

So no, it's not mathematically correct. :pinch:

Edited by elliot
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Im confused now too :unsure:

We need some binary mathematicians... I think we're confused between binary and decimal.... 1Gb is really 1.024Gb =/

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if I remember rightly, the square of 1 is 1

Do you mean square root ??? Square root of 1 times the square root of 1 = 1 ?? :huh:

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1 GB = 1073741824 bytes

1073741824 bytes squared = 1152921504606846976 bytes

1152921504606846976 bytes = 1125899906842624 KB

1125899906842624 KB = 1099511627776 MB

1099511627776MB = 1073741824 GB

1073741824 GB = 1048576 TB

1048576 TB = 1024 PB

1024 PB = 1 EB

I just confused myself. I did the math wrong but I put a bunch of numbers down!!!! yey

Edited by amoeba
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1 GB squared is actually 8 Exabytes.

You can't do megs * megs then convert to GB.

You need to bring it down to the lowest form. They are purely bits, not megs or gigabytes.

GB, MB, KB, B, they all represent a certain amount of bits.

1 GB = 8589934592 bits

8589934592 * 8589934592 = 73786976294838206464 bits

73786976294838206464 bits = 8589934592 GB or 8388608 Terabyte or 8192 Pedabytes or 8 Exabytes

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thats if you convert to megabites if you convert it to bits then its a hell og alot more

it should still add up to the same amount of gigabytes in the end, as long as you convert the bits to gigabytes correctly.

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heres where you made a mistake.

1 gb squared=

1x1 GBxGB.

it comes down to the same thing basically, but you get it squared.

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What's even more confusing is that 1 GB^2 isn't 1 PB :? 10^6 GB = 1 PB. 1 GB^2 is 1 EB. Now of course this is just comparing bytes to bytes metric wise instead of follow binary.

The SI Prefixes simply denote the magnitude of the number, it's just easier to say that adding a *10^x number to the end.

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1 GB squared is actually 8 Exabytes.

You can't do megs * megs then convert to GB.

You need to bring it down to the lowest form. They are purely bits, not megs or gigabytes.

GB, MB, KB, B, they all represent a certain amount of bits.

1 GB = 8589934592 bits

8589934592 * 8589934592 = 73786976294838206464 bits

73786976294838206464 bits = 8589934592 GB or 8388608 Terabyte or 8192 Pedabytes or 8 Exabytes

that makes sense, thats where I went wrong, didnt use the lowest form :)

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1 GB = 1073741824 bytes

1073741824 bytes squared = 1152921504606846976 bytes

1152921504606846976 bytes = 1125899906842624 KB

1125899906842624 KB = 1099511627776 MB

1099511627776MB = 1073741824 GB

1073741824 GB = 1048576 TB

1048576 TB = 1024 PB

1024 PB = 1 ZB

I just confused myself. I did the math wrong but I put a bunch of numbers down!!!! yey

You got it all wrong.

Here is how it works:

One kilobyte equals 2 to the 10th power, or 1,024 bytes.

One megabyte equals 2 to the 20th power, or 1,048,576 bytes.

One gigabyte equals 2 to the 30th power, or 1,073,741,824 bytes.

One terabyte equals 2 to the 40th power, or 1,099511,627,776 bytes.

One petabyte equals 2 to the 50th power, or 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes.

One exabyte equals 2 to the 60th power, or 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes.

One zettabyte equals 2 to the 70th power, or 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 bytes.

One yottabyte equals 2 to the 80th power, or 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 bytes.

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1 GB squared is actually 8 Exabytes.

You can't do megs * megs then convert to GB.

You need to bring it down to the lowest form.  They are purely bits, not megs or gigabytes.

GB, MB, KB, B, they all represent a certain amount of bits.

1 GB = 8589934592 bits

8589934592 * 8589934592 = 73786976294838206464 bits

73786976294838206464 bits = 8589934592 GB or 8388608 Terabyte or 8192 Pedabytes or 8 Exabytes

I got the same thing as you.

You got it all wrong.

Here is how it works:

One kilobyte equals 2 to the 10th power, or 1,024 bytes.

One megabyte equals 2 to the 20th power, or 1,048,576 bytes.

One gigabyte equals 2 to the 30th power, or 1,073,741,824 bytes.

One terabyte equals 2 to the 40th power, or 1,099511,627,776 bytes.

One petabyte equals 2 to the 50th power, or 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes.

One exabyte equals 2 to the 60th power, or 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes.

One zettabyte equals 2 to the 70th power, or 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 bytes.

One yottabyte equals 2 to the 80th power, or 1,208,925,819,614,629,174,706,176 bytes.

Sorry, transposed a line. But saying I got it all wrong? That's harsh! :p

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,Jun 4 2004, 08:30] Im confused now too :unsure:

We need some binary mathematicians... I think we're confused between binary and decimal.... 1Gb is really 1.024Gb =/

No... 1 GB is 1 GB

1 GB = 1024 MB

1.024 GB would be 1048.576 MB (1.024 x 1024 = 1048.576)

binary doesn't come in to this

Do you mean square root ??? Square root of 1 times the square root of 1 = 1 ?? :huh:

1 = 1

sqrt(1) = 1

1^2 = 1

1 x 1 = 1

notice a pattern?

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that was my point, fuel

anyway... google calculator:

16 petabytes = 16 777 216 gigabytes

16 777 216 gigabytes = 1.7592186 ? 10^13 kilobytes

Square root of 1.7592186 ? 10^13 kilobytes = 4 194 303.99 kilobytes

4194303.99 kilobytes = 3.99999999 gigabytes

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that was my point, fuel

No I think you misunderstood me. The other 2 are different equations, but give the same answer - fair enough. The 2 I quoted though not only give the same answer but are also the same equation.

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a doggabyte is actually the highest binary storage (1024 nonnabytes)

there is also the base10 binary system: kibibytes, mebibytes, gibibytes, tebibytes...

Edited by [jon]
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