Computer Science Math

The two sides

Use Ezio Melotti’s Binary and Decimal prefixes as a reference.

• International Standard of Units SI
• International Standard of Units for binary IEC (IEEE 1541)

What’s the difference?

• 2⁰ is 1
• 2¹⁰ is 1024
• 2²⁰ is 1048576
• 2³⁰ is 1073741824
• 2⁴⁰ is 1099511627776
• 2⁵⁰ is 1125899906842624

Confusing usage

Why does it take 8.388608 ms to sent 1 MB over a 1Gbps link? (Little b is a bit. Big B is an 8-bit byte.)

• Wikipedia definition
• Ubuntu man page
• iOS vs macOS
• Willem Vroegh v. Eastman Kodak Company

Computer Science Math

• It’s like area
• Arithmetic for computer geeks
  • 2 ki * 4 Mi = ?
  • 512 ki * 16 = ?
  • 512 ki / 16 = ?
  • log₂ (512 ki) = ?
• Arithmetic for physicists
  • 2 k * 4 M = ?
  • 512 k * 16 = ?
  • 512 k / 16 = ?
  • log₂ (512 k) = ?