this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
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[โ€“] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 69 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

An imperial unit (let's remember we got this from the Brits who now say they're metric... but are they?) is generally based on something in day-to-day life so they're relevant. They would have probably been named in the late 40's or early 50's. So I suspect the they'd be based on ways data was transmitted then.

  • 4 taps (like on a telegraph) = 1 character
    • so 1 tap is 2 bits
  • 1 sheet (like paper) = 13,000 characters
    • so 1 sheet = 52,000 taps = 104,000 bits
  • ... etc
  • 1 bankbox = 500 sheets = 26 million taps = 52 million bits

edit: fixed my maths

[โ€“] oatscoop@midwest.social 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Aren't morse characters are 1 to 3 taps long?

[โ€“] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago

It's 1 to 4 for the English alphabet, though only E is a 1 tap. I started with 3 taps = 1 character but then all the whole number in my examples go away.

[โ€“] shasta@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Letters are 1-4, numbers are 5 taps

[โ€“] oatscoop@midwest.social 1 points 1 year ago

Ah, my mistake