What is a Megabyte?
You’ve seen something like this right?
We know that, this mp3 file is 4.9 megabytes.
We know that, it takes up 4.9 megabytes in your computer.
We know that, it’s not that big.
BUT
What is a MEGABYTE!?
Get it? Mega-Bite? haha.
But seriously. What is a MEGABYTE!?
Well... Long way to go but let’s knock out some easy ones out of the way.
Mega = million and Byte = 8 bits.
A megabyte is 8 million BITS!!!
Do you remember when Tom Cruz rappelled down from the vent to hack top secret information using Floppy disks? Floppy disk can only hold 1.44MB. I don’t know what he was hacking but I know he would have had to bring 4 floppies if he was going to hack my song Let It Be(4.9MB).
Can we still say that a megabyte is not that big?
What a megabyte can store
Knowing that megabyte is 8 million bits (binary digit), here is what bits can do. Let me show you primitive data types of Java.
1 bit: true or false (boolean)
16 bits: a single letter of unicode (char)
32 bits: an integer from 0 to 4,294,967,295 (int)
There are so many more data types but with just this knowledge you can feel the power of a MEGABYTE!!!
Everything is 0s and 1s
Everything that’s stored in computer is essentially sets of bits (0s and 1s). Your 128GB iPhone is all 0s and 1s as well. All your pictures, videos, notes, and whatever you have in there. ALL 0s and 1s!
Fun fact: There are more transistors produced than grain of rice a year.
Now you know everything about a computer!