Can any one tell me why there are 8 bits in a byte?

Answer 1

It's because of the binary system that all digital computers use.

E.g. 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 etc

In the early days of the PC the cpu worked as 8 bit as oposed to later machines 16 bit, and todays machines 32 and 64 bit