What is the Difference Between a Bit and a Byte?
A bit, short for binary digit, is the smallest unit of measurement used for information storage in computers. A bit is represented by a 1 or a 0 with a value of true or false, sometimes expressed as on or off. Eight bits form a single byte of information, also known as an octet. Thus, the difference between a bit and a byte is size, or the amount of information stored. For example, it takes eight bits (1 byte) to store a single character. The capital letter “A” is expressed digitally as 01000001. A small case “a” is represented in binary code as 01100001. Notice the third bit is different in each octet. By rearranging the bits within the octet, a byte is capable of producing 256 unique combinations to form letters, numbers, special characters and symbols. It can get confusing keeping units of storage straight, but if you have trouble remembering which is a bit and a byte, note that the smaller word is the smaller unit of storage. Once the difference between a bit and a byte is understo
A bit is the minimum possible amount of information a computer can manipulate. Bits can thus have only two states, either on (1) or off (0). The two options are the minimum because if bits had only one state there would be no way to manipulate that state. Two bits combined thus have 4 possible states but three bits combined have 8 possible states. This sequence is the same as a power sequence for the number 2. In other words, 21 = 2, 22 = 4, 23 = 8, 24 = 16 and so on. A byte is a collection of 8 bits, otherwise referred to as an octet, meaning that a byte can have 256 possible states. The different possibile states of a byte can be considered the equivalent of an integer whose value can range from 0, when all the bits in the byte are set to “off”, to 255 when all of the bits are set to “on”.
