Why 1000 vs 1024?
Storage and networking vendors often use decimal prefixes: 1 KB = 1000 bytes, 1 MB = 1000 KB. But operating systems and programmers have historically used powers of two: 1 KiB = 1024 bytes, 1 MiB = 1024 KiB.
Decimal: MB = KB ÷ 1000
Binary: MiB = KiB ÷ 1024
Example (decimal)
4500 KB ÷ 1000 = 4.5 MB
Example (binary)
4500 KiB ÷ 1024 ≈ 4.3945 MiB
FAQ
1. Which should I use for web uploads?
Most web tools label in MB but don’t specify. Using decimal is a safe default.
2. Why does Windows show a different size than the disk label?
Because Windows is reporting binary-based units, while the disk label uses decimal-based marketing units.
Formula (LaTeX) + variables + units
This section shows the formulas used by the calculator engine, plus variable definitions and units.
Formula (extracted LaTeX)
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Formula (extracted text)
Decimal: MB = KB ÷ 1000 Binary: MiB = KiB ÷ 1024
Variables and units
- No variables provided in audit spec.
Sources (authoritative):
- NIST — Weights and measures — nist.gov · Accessed 2026-01-19
https://www.nist.gov/pml/weights-and-measures - NIST — SI units — nist.gov · Accessed 2026-01-19
https://www.nist.gov/pml/owm/metric-si/si-units
Changelog
Version: 0.1.0-draft
Last code update: 2026-01-19
Last code update: 2026-01-19
0.1.0-draft · 2026-01-19
- Initial audit spec draft generated from HTML extraction (review required).
- Verify formulas match the calculator engine and convert any text-only formulas to LaTeX.
- Confirm sources are authoritative and relevant to the calculator methodology.