<Pedantic>
Before going any further, answer, AND WRITE DOWN YOUR ANSWERS, to the
following questions:
1. What is a "megabyte"?
2. How many bytes are there in a "megabyte of memory"?
3. How many bytes are there in a "megabyte of disk storage"?
OK, you didn't really write them down, but we'll continue anyway.
On Thu, 21 Jan 1999, Megan wrote:
> Hmm... then why does a chkdsk a: on a '1.44' drive and disk return
> the following:
> 1,457,664 bytes total disk space
> You had better check *your* math!
Thank you. I HAVE. We are both capable of arithmetic. How many bytes
are in a "Megabyte"?
> 2 * 80 * 18 * 512 = 1474560
That part is RIGHT!
> Sure looks like at least 1.44 Mb to me!
Interesting! How many bytes do YOU have in a "Megabyte of disk"?
IF you had 1,000,000 bytes per "Megabyte" (like Sam), then
1474560/1000000 => 1.474560 Megabytes, ABOUT 1.47, NOT 1.44!
AND, the last time you bought a "Megabyte of memory", you got 1.048576 Meg!
[Sam: what books WOULD you consider to be "authoritative"? Mmmmm PANCAKES!]
IF you had 1046576 bytes per "Megabyte" (2^20, 1K K, ...) then
1474560/1048576 => 1.40625 "HONEST Megabytes".
AND, the last time you bought a "Megabyte of memory", you got 1.000 Meg.
If you had 1024000 bytes per "Megabyte", then 1474560/1024000 => 1.44
Megabytes! But could you please explain how you arrive at 1024000 as the
size of a "Megabyte"? Do you use the same number for memory? If so, then
the last time you bought a "Megabyte of memory", you got 1.024 Meg! And
your 64 Meg computer has 65.536 Meg of RAM! If you use different numbers
of bytes in a "Megabyte of disk" than you do in a "Megabyte of memory", do
you work for IBM? How many doughnuts are in a dozen [Mmmm. doughnuts]?
How many in a "baker's dozen"?
There are legitimate arguments for using 2^20 (1048576).
There are legitimate arguments for using 10^6 (1000000).
Is there any legitimate reason to use 1024000? And to use it selectively
for diskettes, but to use a different value (1048576) for memory?
OB_10-year: for 20 years we struggled with companies that claimed that
THEIR computer was better than the competition, because THEIRs had 65.5K
of RAM. Now that we've finally won the battle of how many bytes in a
"Kilobyte", we are LOSING the battle of how many bytes are in a "Megabyte".
--
Fred Cisin cisin_at_xenosoft.com
XenoSoft http://www.xenosoft.com
2210 Sixth St. (510) 644-9366
Berkeley, CA 94710-2219
Received on Fri Jan 22 1999 - 12:27:27 GMT