Whenever we discuss quantities of data, we tend to do it in the abstract. We speak of a kilobyte, or a megabyte or a gigabyte without really knowing what it represents.
The following table shows various quantities of bytes, in each power of ten. Usually, they are shown with multiples of 2 and 5 also. For example, 1 Kilobyte, 2 Kilobytes, 5 Kilobytes. All the examples are approximate and are rounded.
Bytes (8 bits)
- 0.1 bytes: A single yes/no decision (actually 0.125 bytes, but I rounded)
- 1 byte: One character
- 10 bytes: One word (a word of language, not a computer word)
- 100 bytes: Telegram; two punched computer (Hollerith) cards
Kilobytes
1,024 bytes; 210; approx. 1,000 or 103.
- 1 Kilobyte: Joke; (very) short story
- 2 Kilobytes: Typewritten page
- 10 Kilobytes: Page out of an encyclopedia
- 50 Kilobytes: Image of a document page, compressed
- 100 Kilobytes: Photograph, low-resolution
- 200 Kilobytes: Two boxes (4000) punched computer (Hollerith) cards
