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Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life

Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life.

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More or Less: Kilobyte to Brontobyte: Naming the Monster Numbers

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Kilobyte to Brontobyte: Naming the monster numbers

08/10/2017 GMT

Kilobyte to Brontobyte: Naming the Monster Numbers

BBC World Service - More or Less, Kilobyte to Brontobyte: Naming the Monster Numbers

How the names of digital storage files evolved.

The numbers we need to describe the world around us are getting bigger. Thirty years ago computers had megabytes and kilobytes of storage space but now we need to come with bigger units of measurement every few years. We invited maths author Rob Eastaway onto the programme to tell the story behind these numbers and make the case for a new giant unit of measurement: the Brontobyte.

(Photo: Journalist working on his computer, August 1980, at the Agence France-Presse. Credit: Getty Images)

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