Memory Free and KDE Speed -- Help me understand

[Robert Tilley]

I have 512 MB on a 2.0 GHz processor, just for reference.

In KInfoCenter, Free Physical Memory is usually listed as less than 10 MB when 
the usual suite of applications is running.

On the graphs at the bottom of KInfoCenter, the Total Memory shows Total Free 
as 45%; Used Swap as 20%; and Used Physical Memory as 34%.  34% of 512MB is 
174 MB.  Can someone help reconcile these two elements?

Thanks, Bob

P.S.  I'm now running everything and searching every website I can
      for info on how Linux and KDE use memory.
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