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A mebibyte (MiB) is a unit of digital information equal to \(2^{20}\) bytes, or \(1,048,576\) bytes. It is a binary measurement, created to distinguish between powers of two (\(1024\) KiB = 1 MiB) and decimal measurements (\(1000\) KiB = 1 MB). The term was introduced to avoid confusion with the megabyte (MB), which is often used informally to mean a mebibyte but officially means \(1,000,000\) bytes.  

Why mebibytes are important

Accuracy: Using mebibytes ensures precise measurements in contexts like programming and data transfer, avoiding discrepancies that can arise from the ambiguous use of "megabyte".

Standards: It provides a standardized, unambiguous way to measure data based on how computers actually work (in binary).

Confusion: By clarifying the distinction, mebibytes help prevent confusion, such as the discrepancy between a drive's advertised storage in decimal megabytes and its actual capacity shown by an operating system in binary mebibytes (often still labeled as MB).