1024/Historical Note
< 1024
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Historical Note on $1024$ (One Thousand and Twenty-Four)
While the metric scaling prefix $\mathrm k$ is generally used to denote a scale factor of $1000$, in the field of computer science it is used to mean a scale factor of $1024$.
In order to distinguish the two in case of confusion, the $1024$ multiplier can be denoted by an uppercase $\mathrm K$.
Thus $1 \, \mathrm K$ of memory conventionally means $1024$ bytes.
It is of course purely coincidental that $2^{10}$ is very close in value to $10^3$.
Sources
- 1986: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers ... (previous) ... (next): $1024$
- 1997: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Numbers (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): $1024$