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This should be moved to kilo- and get a {{ lowercase}} tag. See Talk:Micro for rationale. — Omegatron 17:48, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
Sorry, Am I being really dumb here? Surely if they sold you a 1 Tera byte hardrive, and you thought, ah that's only 1x10^12 bytes when actually it's (1024^4=) 1.0995x10^12 bytes then they're understating how big their drives are; and although I see some weak ethical argument in misrepresenting their product I personally won't be complaining.
I believe you are absolutely right. The problem, though, stems form the fact that all SI-prefixes (kilo, mega, tera, etc.) come from the decimal system, therefore indicate powers of ten (mega = 10 to the sixth, kilo = ten to the third, etc.), whilst computers work in binary system, making all "relevant" numbers to be powers of 2. It is just an "agreement" that kilo in computing can mean the number that is a power of 2 which is closest to the regular "SI-kilo". I.e. 1024 (being a power of two [the tenth]) is closest to 1000 (being a power of ten [the third]) and can therefore be indicated by "kilo", which regularly / outside of computing indicates 1000. I wouldn't even believe that this constitutes a misrepresentation of a product, since by general agreement the SI units can be used in this context, even thought it is technically incorrect. Therefore nobody will believe that one kilobyte is actually exactly 1000 bytes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.75.4.75 ( talk) 14:13, 21 March 2009 (UTC)
Just a thought. Is the use of k/K/Kilo correct in the text? Isn't Kilo supposed to be (large) K and not (small) k as the other great numbers, i.e. not like the small numbers? In the computer section both k (in kb) and K (in KB) is used, wich does complicate the issue. ( Thavox 11:28, 6 March 2007 (UTC))
leave the "small" letters for small quantities. "one thousand" is not small, never in a million years
Tabascofernandez (
talk) 00:34, 15 July 2017 (UTC)
About kilo/chilio: the article currently [1] says "Based on a proposal by Thomas Young, the prefix was often alternatively spelled chilio in early 19th century" without context. However, this puristic spelling was mainly limited to English. It might be useful to add that Young was a dreaded opponent of the metric system in England, that he ridiculed the French neologisms, and that the metric system had no legal status in England at that time. The system was legalised in 1864 by the Metric Weights and Measures Act, which introduced a single legal spelling in English, kilo. (Legalised in the US in 1866, [2]) The expression "proposal by Thomas Young" somewhat suggests that Young invented the alternative spelling chilio. However, Prieur explained in 1795 [3] that the prefix kilo derived from kilioi or chilioi, but that after careful consideration the spelling kilo was chosen. It is a neologism, not subject to puristic conventions. The French law of 1795 that introduced the metric system in France introduced a single legal spelling: kilo. Ceinturion ( talk) 16:01, 25 August 2016 (UTC)
changing the ending vowel will harmonize it with its cognants
Tabascofernandez (
talk) 00:36, 15 July 2017 (UTC)
I removed the incorrect history statement "[The kilo prefix] was originally adopted by Antoine Lavoisier's research group in 1795, and introduced into the metric system in France with its establishment in 1799." In 1795, Lavoisier was dead, and there was no "Lavoisier's research group". In 1793, Lavoisier did something else, he determined the mass of the grave, the predecessor of the kilogram. At that time the prefix kilo did not yet exist. The metric system was established in 1795, not 1799. The history is better discussed in other articles such as kilogram, grave, History of the metric system. Ceinturion ( talk) 23:45, 12 June 2021 (UTC)
Fix mistake. Surprizi ( talk) 15:01, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||
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This should be moved to kilo- and get a {{ lowercase}} tag. See Talk:Micro for rationale. — Omegatron 17:48, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
Sorry, Am I being really dumb here? Surely if they sold you a 1 Tera byte hardrive, and you thought, ah that's only 1x10^12 bytes when actually it's (1024^4=) 1.0995x10^12 bytes then they're understating how big their drives are; and although I see some weak ethical argument in misrepresenting their product I personally won't be complaining.
I believe you are absolutely right. The problem, though, stems form the fact that all SI-prefixes (kilo, mega, tera, etc.) come from the decimal system, therefore indicate powers of ten (mega = 10 to the sixth, kilo = ten to the third, etc.), whilst computers work in binary system, making all "relevant" numbers to be powers of 2. It is just an "agreement" that kilo in computing can mean the number that is a power of 2 which is closest to the regular "SI-kilo". I.e. 1024 (being a power of two [the tenth]) is closest to 1000 (being a power of ten [the third]) and can therefore be indicated by "kilo", which regularly / outside of computing indicates 1000. I wouldn't even believe that this constitutes a misrepresentation of a product, since by general agreement the SI units can be used in this context, even thought it is technically incorrect. Therefore nobody will believe that one kilobyte is actually exactly 1000 bytes. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.75.4.75 ( talk) 14:13, 21 March 2009 (UTC)
Just a thought. Is the use of k/K/Kilo correct in the text? Isn't Kilo supposed to be (large) K and not (small) k as the other great numbers, i.e. not like the small numbers? In the computer section both k (in kb) and K (in KB) is used, wich does complicate the issue. ( Thavox 11:28, 6 March 2007 (UTC))
leave the "small" letters for small quantities. "one thousand" is not small, never in a million years
Tabascofernandez (
talk) 00:34, 15 July 2017 (UTC)
About kilo/chilio: the article currently [1] says "Based on a proposal by Thomas Young, the prefix was often alternatively spelled chilio in early 19th century" without context. However, this puristic spelling was mainly limited to English. It might be useful to add that Young was a dreaded opponent of the metric system in England, that he ridiculed the French neologisms, and that the metric system had no legal status in England at that time. The system was legalised in 1864 by the Metric Weights and Measures Act, which introduced a single legal spelling in English, kilo. (Legalised in the US in 1866, [2]) The expression "proposal by Thomas Young" somewhat suggests that Young invented the alternative spelling chilio. However, Prieur explained in 1795 [3] that the prefix kilo derived from kilioi or chilioi, but that after careful consideration the spelling kilo was chosen. It is a neologism, not subject to puristic conventions. The French law of 1795 that introduced the metric system in France introduced a single legal spelling: kilo. Ceinturion ( talk) 16:01, 25 August 2016 (UTC)
changing the ending vowel will harmonize it with its cognants
Tabascofernandez (
talk) 00:36, 15 July 2017 (UTC)
I removed the incorrect history statement "[The kilo prefix] was originally adopted by Antoine Lavoisier's research group in 1795, and introduced into the metric system in France with its establishment in 1799." In 1795, Lavoisier was dead, and there was no "Lavoisier's research group". In 1793, Lavoisier did something else, he determined the mass of the grave, the predecessor of the kilogram. At that time the prefix kilo did not yet exist. The metric system was established in 1795, not 1799. The history is better discussed in other articles such as kilogram, grave, History of the metric system. Ceinturion ( talk) 23:45, 12 June 2021 (UTC)
Fix mistake. Surprizi ( talk) 15:01, 2 February 2023 (UTC)