09/05/2010

Magnitudes

Kilo = 1E3 = 1,000
Mega = 1E6 = 1,000,000
Giga = 1E9 = 1,000,000,000
Tera = 1E12= 1,000,000,000,000
Peta = 1E15= 1,000,000,000,000,000
Exa = 1E18= 1,000,000,000,000,000,000
Zetta= 1E21= 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Yotta= 1E24= 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Units are expressed in Bytes, times in seconds

Bytes
4 E0 - Address of a computer or network node on the Internet
30 E0 - 300 Baud Modem, circa 1981
121 E0 - The data on a magnetic stripe card

Kilobytes
12 E3 - 1200 BPS Modem - circa 1985
56 E3 - 56K Modem - circa 1990 - known as "Dial-up"
274 E3 - One page of a FAX
300 E3 - DSL Download speed circa 2009 (3Mb/sec = 300 KBPS)
508 E3 - One frame of DVD-quality video

Megabytes
1.44 E6 - 3.5 inch floppy disc
5 Mb - The King James Bible
7 E6 - 8 Megapixel Photograph
10 E6 - Hard drive circa 1985
12 E6 - The Oxford Dictionary of English
40 E6 - The Encyclopedia Britanica
650 E6 - CD-ROM

Gigabytes
1 E9 - "Large hard drive" circa 1990
1 E9 - Wikipedia circa 2009
3.2 E9 - Human Genome (Base pairs - each is 2 bits)
4 E9 - Single-sided DVD disc
25 E9 - Single-sided Blue-Ray disc
27 E9 - Hard drive circa 1998

Terabytes
1 E12 - Hard drive circa 2008
1.5 E12 - the functional capacity of the Human mind (Ray Kurzweil)
18.75 E12 - Digital equivalent of the Library of Congress

PetaBytes

Exabytes
5 E15 - All words ever spoken by humans, in text

ZetaBytyes
2.25 E21 - The information that can be stored in 1 gram of DNA

==Seconds==
60 Seconds in a minute
3,600 seconds in a hour
86,400 Seconds in a day
2,592,000 Seconds in 30 days
31,536,000 Seconds in 365 days
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Category Interesting facts