megabytes

A megabyte is a unit of information used to quantify digital data. In decimal form, one megabyte equals one million bytes (10^6). In many computing contexts, however, the term has been used to denote 1,048,576 bytes (2^20), a quantity known as a mebibyte and symbolized as MiB. To reduce confusion, the International Electrotechnical Commission and other standards bodies introduced binary prefixes such as KiB (kibibyte) and MiB for powers of two.

The difference between decimal and binary usage leads to ambiguity in practice. Storage devices and data-transfer specifications are often expressed in decimal megabytes (MB), while memory sizes in RAM and some operating-system reports may reflect binary values (MiB). As a result, a single value labeled MB can represent either 1,000,000 or 1,048,576 bytes depending on the context.

Common examples illustrate the distinction. A standard compact disc holds about 700 MB in decimal terms, while computer memory is frequently described in MiB or GiB for 1024-based steps. The prefix mega- is part of the metric system, meaning “great” or “large,” and is applied to bytes in both decimal and binary contexts, though the binary usage is technically addressed by the separate MiB unit.

In summary, MB is a widely used but context-dependent unit of data size, with decimal and binary conventions that can cause confusion without clarification.