Eli5 Why there arent like 20gb USBs instead each usb has twice as much as the previous(8gb,16gb,32gb,64gb,128gb

Question

Eli5 Why there arent like 20gb USBs instead each usb has twice as much as the previous(8gb,16gb,32gb,64gb,128gb

In: 1

Answer 1

Because 2^3 = 8, 2^4 = 16, 2^5 = 32,…

Computers work with only 2 values 1 and 0 called bits.

You can imagine the chips storing these as apartments.
Each door in the apartment must have a number (address).

2^x tells us the maximum number of doors with x being the number of bits needed to write the address for the door.

If you want to write 20 you will find that 2^4 (16) is not enough and you need 2^5, but at that point you might as well use all 32 addresses.