Origin

The thought arose after reading this thread on thedailywtf: Google Calculator - 10MB over 56k. ``How can I measure data transfer in tsp/s?'' While this calculation:

1 MB / 1 tsp = 2.12739435 × 10¹¹ Bytes / m³

is amusing, it uses a pretty bogus unit (bytes/m³).

Byte volume

What's clearly needed is a way to measure the volume of space a byte takes up. In the following, I use a 3.5" floppy disk as my reference[1]. A typically formatted 3.5" floppy holds 1,474,560 bytes, and measures 90mm×95mm×3mm. Thus we have:

90 mm * 95 mm * 3 mm = 25.65 ml = 5.20397807 tsp

So there are 1,474,560 bytes in about 5.20 teaspoons, or 283,352.462 bytes (276.71KB) in a teaspoon.

Conversion

Finally, we have a number we can use to convert bytes to teaspoons.

10 MB / 276.71 KB = 37.006252 tsp
3 tsp * 283,352.462 bytes = 830.134 KB

Data Transfer

56kbps / 276.71 KB = 0.0253 tsp/s
100Mbps / 276.71 KB = 46.2578 tsp/s
1000Mbps / 276.71 KB = 462.578 tsp/s

I do feel sorry for those poor folks who are still stuck using 25 milliteaspoon dialup...

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[1] In Europe, this measurement is based on the density of a CD. Here in the US we stick with good old floppies.

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