Bit is the acronym for Binary Digit, which in Portuguese means binary digit, that is, it is the smallest unit of information that can be stored or transmitted. It is commonly used in computing and information theory. A bit can only have 2 values, such as 0 or 1.
Computers are designed to store instructions in multiples of bits, which are called bytes. Initially, byte was variable length, but currently it is eight bits, eight-bit bytes are also called octets. There are also some terms to refer to multiples of bits, such as kilobit, megabit (Mb), and gigabit (Gb).
Physically, the value of a bit is stored as an electrical charge above or below a standard level on a single capacitor within a memory device. But bits can be physically represented by various means, such as electricity, fiber optics, wireless networking, etc.
A byte is one of the integral data types in computation, it is used to specify the size or quantity. of a device's memory or storage capacity, regardless of data type stored. Standardized byte encoding was defined as being 8 bits. The 8-bit byte is more commonly called an octet in the context of computer and telecommunications networks.
The importance of bits and bytes is due to the fact that everything in computing is measured in bits and bytes.
