In computer sciece:

2^10 = 1,024

* the digital approximation of the kilo-, or 1,000 multiplier, which causes a change of prefix. For example: 1,024 bytes = 1 kilobyte (or kibibyte).
* This number has no special significance to computers, but is important to humans because we make use of powers of ten.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_of_two