Bitimäärä

Bitimäärä is the basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. A bit, short for binary digit, represents a single binary state, typically 0 or 1, and serves as the fundamental building block for representing, transmitting, and storing data. Bitimäärä is used to quantify both the amount of information in a message and the capacity of storage or bandwidth.

Bits are commonly grouped into larger units for practical use. Data size is usually described in bytes, where one byte consists of eight bits. Data rates, such as network speeds, are typically expressed in bits per second (bps) or multiples thereof (kbps, Mbps, Gbps). When referring to data size or capacity, prefixes like kilobit (kb), megabit (Mb), and gigabit (Gb) are common, as are binary prefixes such as kibibit (Kibit), mebibit (Mibit), and gibibit (Gibit) in some contexts. The same convention applies to bytes, kilobyte, megabyte, and so on, with kibibyte and related terms used to distinguish binary-based sizes.

In information theory, a bit is the amount of information needed to distinguish between two equally likely alternatives. With n bits, up to 2^n distinct values can be encoded. This relationship underpins everything from digital encoding schemes to error detection and correction, data compression, and addressing in computer hardware.

Typical applications of bit mängd include estimating storage capacity of devices, measuring transmission bandwidth, and describing the precision of digital representations such as audio, images, and measurements. Biträmm is therefore a central concept across computer science, telecommunications, and information theory.