B is Bel? b is Barn? [was RE: Changing KB, MB, and GB to KiB, MiB, and GiB in Configure.help]

[Juergen Sawinski <juergen.sawinski@mpimf-heidelberg.mpg.de>]

(Have a look at http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/outside.html.)

Strictly speaking, "Byte" is actually a prefix, too. A prefix of the
number "1" - however, a prefix with a context. "bit", "rad" and others
are not real units, they are more like "context descriptions" off the
number "1".

I think, the prefixes "...T,G,M,k,m,µ..." should be taken, as they were
for a long time: context specific.

IMAO, if there is any sane way of defining this, it is by giving a base
as index (like the log function). In case of bit, Byte etc. -as they
already define a context- the base is always 2. In case of SI Base
Units, the base is 10.

But that's only my 0.5 Nibble cents/bit (oh, I mean Euro cents/bit).

George

P.S.: What's about using mole?

On Thu, 2001-12-20 at 20:27, Dana Lacoste wrote:
[...] 
> there is _no_ standard for what 1MB means.  There is a LOT of
> confusion, and most places will accept both
[...]

-- 
Juergen Sawinski
Max-Planck-Institute for Medical Research
Dept. of Biomedical Optics
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