The following is quoted from http://www.bittorrent.com/companyoverview.html , their About page.

"BitTorrent is a peer-assisted, digital content delivery platform that provides the fastest, most efficient means of distributing, discovering, and consuming large, high-quality files on the Web. Our mission is simple: to deliver the content that entertains and informs the digital world."

It takes time to download this file format, you're getting the file in bits and pieces, as the servers that hold this file have the time to give up a part. This same file may reside on different parties servers, but they're busy doing the main party functions. Bookkeeping, word processing, etc. If they have a downtime, and someone's request can be served, they'll contribute.
Think of this way, a block party. Everyone's invited, but they have to bring something to the party. One house brings ribs, another steaks, another brings a vegan entree. One brings cole slaw, another potato salad, and that house brings a fruit plate. Then there's the bad ones, fireworks from this home, and beer from that home.
It all adds up to a good time, but it took a few hours to achieve that state of mind.
First the vegan dish, than the beer, then the cole slaw. The house with ribs will be late by two hours, and the fireworks show up, before the fruit plate.
That's how you're going to get a bittorrent, little by little, and not in the order you'd like. But, in the end, when you install/play whatever that file, it will work as intended. You need to install the BitTorrent program, before that can though.

Maybe efficient, but most certainly, not the fastest.


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: chipo chika <[log in to unmask]>
> What is a bit torrent? Each time I want to download a link under files
> listed as bit torrents I end up downloading small files of a few KB. How
> do bit torrents differ from the ordinary downloads?
> -- 
>   chipo chika
>   [log in to unmask]
> 
> -- 
> http://www.fastmail.fm - I mean, what is it about a decent email service?
> 
>                          PCBUILD's List Owners:
>                       Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
>                        Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>

                         PCBUILD's List Owners:
                      Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
                       Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>