Advanced Conversions — Energy, Data, Time, Scientific

Specialist conversions that don't fit the everyday categories. Energy (joules, kilowatt-hours, BTU, calories), data (KB, MB, GB, TB), time and more.

Questions

What is the difference between calorie and kilocalorie?

A 'food calorie' (Cal) is actually a kilocalorie (kcal) — 1,000 small calories. 1 kcal = 4,184 joules.

How big is a kilowatt-hour?

1 kWh = 3.6 million joules. It's the energy used by a 1,000-watt appliance running for one hour — the standard billing unit for electricity.

Is 1 GB equal to 1,000 MB or 1,024 MB?

It depends. Storage manufacturers often use 1 GB = 1,000 MB (decimal). Operating systems and RAM use 1 GB = 1,024 MB (binary, technically GiB). Our converter uses the binary 1,024 standard.