Megabits per second and Bits per second Converter

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Using the Megabits per second and Bits per second Converter

This converter allows you to convert between 2 units of broadband speed (the speed at which data can be transferred between devices).

Start by choosing between the British and the American spelling throughout the text. The choice can be made at the top of the converter.

Then proceed to choose your input unit (the one in which the value you are trying to convert comes). This choice is done in the ‘CONVERT FROM’ section. You can choose between Megabits per second (Mb/s) and bits per second (b/s).

The output unit (the one in which your result will be) can be selected in the ‘CONVERT TO’ section of the converter. The choice is between the same 2 units as in the case of the input.

An alternative way to select your units is to stick with the default settings or to click on the icon with 2 arrows headed in opposite directions, which will swap the selection between the input and the output.

Once you have selected the units to your liking, type the value of the input into the ‘VALUE TO CONVERT’ section. Your value should be written as a decimal number using the decimal dot.

Choose the number of decimal places you want your result rounded toward and click on ‘CONVERT’.

Your result will appear below the converter as a decimal number rounded to the desired number of decimal places in the output unit of your choosing.

Additionally, you will receive a conversion rate between your input and output unit, as well as a convenient ‘COPY’ icon, which allows for easy copying and pasting of the result.

Converting Megabits per second and Bits per second Manually

Both units we are converting refer to broadband speeds. They describe the amount of data the device, cable, or internet connection can transfer per second. More about the meaning of bits and Megabits in the next section.

A conversion rate between the units is necessary for creating conversion formulae which will help us convert manually.

The conversion rate in this case is fairly easy to figure out if we are aware of the meaning of the prefix ‘mega’.

Mega is a prefix of Greek origin meaning quite literally ‘great’ or ‘a lot of’. This prefix has been adopted into scientific terminology and means ‘a million of’. Based on this, we can determine that Megabit means 1,000,000 bits.

Hence, we can state that the conversion rate between Megabits per second and bits per second is 1:1,000,000.

The 2 formulae we can derive from this information are as follows.

B = Mb/s * 1,000,000
Mb/s = B  \div 1,000,000

It is a good idea to have 2 different formulae, as they offer simple solutions for conversions in both directions. The key to choosing the right formula is to make sure your output unit is also the unit that poses as the subject of the formula (in our case the standalone variable on the left side of the formula). The 2 examples below will demonstrate how the formulae are used in practice.

EXAMPLE 1: Karl found out that the average broadband speed of his internet is 42 Mb/s. What is his broadband speed in bits per second?

The output unit in this problem is bits per second. That means that using the first formula, as bits per second are the subject of it, is the best way to solve this problem. We substitute 42 for MB/S and count as follows.

B = Mb/s * 1,000,000 \\= 42 * 1,000,000 \\= 42,000,000 ~b/s

EXAMPLE 2: Samantha read in an old textbook, that floppy discs could transfer data into computers at a speed of up to 800 bits per second. What is the equivalent of this speed in Mb/s?

The output for this problem is in Mb/s. That means that we will choose the second formula as the best one for solving this problem. We substitute 800 for B and count as follows.

Mb/s = B \div 1,000,000 \\= 800 \div 1,000,000 \\= 0.0008 Mb/s

Converting Megabits per second and Bits per second from Memory

Because of the conversion rate between the 2 units being defined by 1,000,000, we can offer an easy method that helps us convert between the units from memory.

The essence of this method lies in the fact, that multiplication and division by 1,000,000 is a matter of manipulating the position of the decimal dot, without changing the values of individual digits.

MethodInstruction
Dividing by 1,000,000We move the decimal dot 6 positions to the left. Any positions that are missing a digit will be filled with a zero, including an extra zero in the position of ones.
Multiplying by 1,000,000We move the decimal dot 6 positions to the right. Any positions that are missing a digit will be filled with tailing zeroes.

The following 2 examples will demonstrate how this trick can be used in real life.

EXAMPLE 1: Convert 5,493 bits per second into Megabits per second.

In this case, we must divide 5,493 by 1,000,000. We move the decimal dot 6 positions to the left. The only problem we have is, that we have only 4 digits available for this movement, hence we fill the 2 additional places with zeroes and we will also fill the position of ones with an additional zero. The result is 0.005493 Mb/s.

EXAMPLE 2: Convert 0.09 Mb/s into bits per second.

This problem calls for multiplying by 1,000,000. We move the decimal dot 6 positions to the right. However, we see only 2 possible digits, hence we add 4 more zeroes at the tail of the result. We get 90,000 bits per second as the solution.

What is a Bit?

A bit is the most basic and smallest increment of data a computer generates. In simple terms, a computer operates in a binary system using only 0 or 1 as values.

These values have a specific meaning of either being off (0) or on (1).

A bit is the carrier of this simple information.

Complex data, like letters, numbers, images, etc. are composed of a large number of bits, which generate a code using the binary system. Hence a bit is the main building block of all data.

Bits are usually clustered into larger groups of 8 bits, which are referred to as bytes. A byte is a more sensible unit of data, as a byte is often enough to store information for individual ASCII characters, which means that most letters or numbers you see on your PC or other devices are formed with a byte at a time.

Hence, be very careful when studying anything regarding computers, as bits are labeled with a lower case ‘b’, while bytes are labeled with an upper case ‘B’. Confusing them could lead to different results, which can be different by a magnitude of 8.

World’s Fastest Internet Speeds

Broadband speed is usually used to describe the speed of an internet connection. Now that we are more familiar with the terminology, let’s observe a table that shows us 5 nations with the fastest average broadband speed, including the speed expressed in Mb/s.

CountryBroadband speed in Mb/s
Monaco261.8
Singapore255.8
Hong Kong254.7
Romania232.2
Switzerland230

References

https://kb.iu.edu/d/ackw
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/internet-speeds-by-country