Kilobyte

A kilobyte consists of 1024 bytes of computer data. (This is because 2^10 = 1024). Now, I realize this may be a shock to those of you, who for your whole life, thought a kilobyte was 1000 bytes. "But 'kilo' means one thousand!", you exclaim. Right, but in the computer world, rules and guidelines don't really have the same influence as they do in most other cases. Just ask any computer programmer. However, because 1024 is so close to 1000, in most cases a kilobyte is rounded off to 1000 bytes. Common download speeds with a 56K modem are 3 to 5 kilobytes/sec. Abbreviation: "K".