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Revision as of 20:57, 21 December 2024 editStevebroshar (talk \| contribs)Extended confirmed users1,682 edits →Multiple of a unit of measurement by an integer power of two??: new sectionTag: New topic ← Previous edit		Revision as of 21:13, 21 December 2024 edit undoQuondum (talk \| contribs)Extended confirmed users36,912 edits →Multiple of a unit of measurement by an integer power of two??: rNext edit →
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	WRT "A binary prefix is a unit prefix that indicates a multiple of a unit of measurement by an integer power of two". Is it? Or is it a power of 1024? Yes, they are all powers of 2, but calling them that seems misleading. That they are power of 2 doesn't seem like the most central defining property of this set of multiples. ] (]) 20:57, 21 December 2024 (UTC)		WRT "A binary prefix is a unit prefix that indicates a multiple of a unit of measurement by an integer power of two". Is it? Or is it a power of 1024? Yes, they are all powers of 2, but calling them that seems misleading. That they are power of 2 doesn't seem like the most central defining property of this set of multiples. ] (]) 20:57, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

			: If we had names for other powers of two, they too would be called binary prefixes. The fact that we find only a certain subset of these prefixes convenient enough for general use to create a name does not mean that we should necessarily use the smallest (obvious) category that contains this subset. And no, it is not misleading: it is predicated on the practicality of implementing memory sizes as powers of 2, not of 1024. When the prefixes 'centi', 'deci', 'deca' and 'hecto' fall into disuse, will it be misleading to call the remaining prefixes (all of which are powers of 1000) "decimal prefixes"? (Actually, these are more commonly called "]es", but that is an even vaguer category.) —] 21:13, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

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Template-table references removed from article, preserved here

Bit rates (data-rate units)
Name	Symbol	Multiple
bit per second	bit/s	1	1
Metric prefixes (SI)
kilobit per second	kbit/s	10	1000
megabit per second	Mbit/s	10	1000
gigabit per second	Gbit/s	10	1000
terabit per second	Tbit/s	10	1000
Binary prefixes (IEC 80000-13)
kibibit per second	Kibit/s	2	1024
mebibit per second	Mibit/s	2	1024
gibibit per second	Gibit/s	2	1024
tebibit per second	Tibit/s	2	1024

Multiple-bit units

Decimal
Value	Metric
1000	kbit	kilobit
1000	Mbit	megabit
1000	Gbit	gigabit
1000	Tbit	terabit
1000	Pbit	petabit
1000	Ebit	exabit
1000	Zbit	zettabit
1000	Ybit	yottabit
1000	Rbit	ronnabit
1000	Qbit	quettabit

Binary
Value	IEC		Memory
1024	Kibit	kibibit	Kbit	Kb	kilobit
1024	Mibit	mebibit	Mbit	Mb	megabit
1024	Gibit	gibibit	Gbit	Gb	gigabit
1024	Tibit	tebibit	—
1024	Pibit	pebibit	—
1024	Eibit	exbibit	—
1024	Zibit	zebibit	—
1024	Yibit	yobibit	—
—
—

Orders of magnitude of data

Multiple of a unit of measurement by an integer power of two??

WRT "A binary prefix is a unit prefix that indicates a multiple of a unit of measurement by an integer power of two". Is it? Or is it a power of 1024? Yes, they are all powers of 2, but calling them that seems misleading. That they are power of 2 doesn't seem like the most central defining property of this set of multiples. Stevebroshar (talk) 20:57, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

If we had names for other powers of two, they too would be called binary prefixes. The fact that we find only a certain subset of these prefixes convenient enough for general use to create a name does not mean that we should necessarily use the smallest (obvious) category that contains this subset. And no, it is not misleading: it is predicated on the practicality of implementing memory sizes as powers of 2, not of 1024. When the prefixes 'centi', 'deci', 'deca' and 'hecto' fall into disuse, will it be misleading to call the remaining prefixes (all of which are powers of 1000) "decimal prefixes"? (Actually, these are more commonly called "metric prefixes", but that is an even vaguer category.) —Quondum 21:13, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

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