Re: Types of numerals; bases in natlangs.

On 1/16/06, Herman Miller <hmiller@...> wrote:
> I'll continue to
> use "kilobyte" and "megabyte" to indicate 1,024 and 1,048,576 bytes
> respectively,
I'm curious how you would describe the amount of data that fits on a
normally-formatted 3.5" diskette?

Traditionally, the amount has been described as "1.44 MB", but it's
actually 1440 * 1024 bytes, so 1.44 * 1000 * 1024 -- "1440 kilobyes"
would be accurate, but "1.44 megabytes" would not, by your
nomenclature. (The number comes from 2 sides * 80 tracks per side * 18
sectors per track * 512 bytes per sector.)

Or should we introduce a third reading of "megabyte" to indicate 1000
* 1024 bytes, used only in reference to diskettes? :)
--
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>