krol@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Ed Krol) (03/23/91)
I am looking for some examples which I can use in a talk to non techies to illustrate transmissions speeds. So what I am looking for is how many bytes are in the bible, or in the encyclopedia britianica or the sunday new york times.... Thanks
howeird@hpspdra.HP.COM (Howard Stateman) (03/27/91)
krol@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Ed Krol) writes: >I am looking for some examples which I can use in a talk to non >techies to illustrate transmissions speeds. So what I am looking >for is how many bytes are in the bible, or in the encyclopedia britianica >or the sunday new york times.... When I give this kind of talk, I usually start by saying that, in round numbers, it takes about 10 bits for every character, and your typical typed sheet has 80 characters per line, 66 lines per page. That's 52,800 bits per page... Howard Stateman Systems Support Engineer Telnet (415) 857-3817 Intelligent Networks Operation, Palo Alto howeird@hpspdra.spd.HP.COM
anderson@dogie.macc.wisc.edu (Jess Anderson) (03/28/91)
In article <12710015@hpspdra.HP.COM> howeird@hpspdra.HP.COM (Howard Stateman) writes: >krol@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Ed Krol) writes: >>I am looking for some examples which I can use in a talk to non >>techies to illustrate transmissions speeds. So what I am looking >>for is how many bytes are in the bible, or in the encyclopedia britianica >>or the sunday new york times.... >When I give this kind of talk, I usually start by saying that, in round >numbers, it takes about 10 bits for every character, and your typical >typed sheet has 80 characters per line, 66 lines per page. That's 52,800 >bits per page... No disrespect intended, but that seems to me a rather more technical or engineering point of view of the matter and I think your numbers are quite high because of it. As an example of another way of looking at it, think in terms of typed manuscript pages. These are usually 60-character lines of pica type, double spaced, with top and bottom page margins. That would be 18,000 bits per page. In practice, the number is closer to 15,000 because of ragged right margins. Typescript gives people a reasonable conceptual handle, if they've been to college and had to write term papers and book reports. A megabyte is around 660 pages of typescript. Now for some blue sky. That megabyte equates to a moderate- sized book. By that measure, the Library of Congress contains about 50 thousand thousand megabytes = 5 x 10^13 bytes. <> True love-sickness is not desire for possession, but only <> a gentle unveiling of the world itself. -- Robert Musil -- Jess Anderson <> Madison Academic Computing Center <> University of Wisconsin Internet: anderson@macc.wisc.edu <-best, UUCP:{}!uwvax!macc.wisc.edu!anderson NeXTmail w/attachments: anderson@yak.macc.wisc.edu Bitnet: anderson@wiscmacc Room 3130 <> 1210 West Dayton Street / Madison WI 53706 <> Phone 608/262-5888