What is 37.4 bits?

37.4 bits is like having 37 and a little extra pieces of information, almost like having 38 pieces but not quite.

Imagine you have a bag full of colored marbles, and each marble can be one of two colors: red or blue. If you pick out a marble, it tells you one bit of information, is it red or blue? Now imagine instead that each marble can be one of eight different colors. That means picking out a marble gives you three bits of information, because with three choices (like yes/no/yes), you can describe eight different possibilities.

So 37.4 bits would be like having a bag where each marble has about 38 different color options, but it’s just slightly less than that, almost there, but not quite full.

If you think of bits as the number of choices in a game, then 37.4 bits is like having a super cool spinner with 38 sides, but one side is just a little bit smaller than the others, it’s almost fair, but not quite perfect.37.4 bits is like having 37 and a little extra pieces of information, almost like having 38 pieces but not quite.

Imagine you have a bag full of colored marbles, and each marble can be one of two colors: red or blue. If you pick out a marble, it tells you one bit of information, is it red or blue? Now imagine instead that each marble can be one of eight different colors. That means picking out a marble gives you three bits of information, because with three choices (like yes/no/yes), you can describe eight different possibilities.

So 37.4 bits would be like having a bag where each marble has about 38 different color options, but it’s just slightly less than that, almost there, but not quite full.