A petabyte is how many bytes?

A petabyte is a unit of digital information storage that is equivalent to 1,000 terabytes or 1 quadrillion bytes. Specifically, it is calculated as 1 petabyte equals 1,024 terabytes, where 1 terabyte itself equals 1,024 gigabytes, and each gigabyte equals 1,024 megabytes. When you extend this calculation, a petabyte translates to 1,024 raised to the power of 5 in byte measurements.

The correct answer reflects this value. A petabyte is indeed 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes when expressed in decimal form, which corresponds to the value 1 quadrillion in scientific notation. Recognizing that each step in this binary measurement system multiplies by 1,024 is key to understanding how these larger units interconnect.

Other options fall significantly short of or exceed this accurate calculation, demonstrating a misunderstanding of the scale of data measurement in computing. Understanding these values facilitates better comprehension of data storage capacities, especially as data generation continues to expand rapidly in various sectors.