Re: how much does data weigh?

[Hendrik Lüdemann <hen.luedemann () gmail com>]

The Question is. Where do these electrons come from? In your power
supply is a transformator, which only transferes energy from one coil
to another, but no electrons. Also you have alternating current coming
out of your socket. In other words the electrons are coming and going,
but overall no electrons are transferred.

So where do these mysterious electrons on the capacitor come from?
I would argue: When the capacitor ich charging, the electrons are
flowing from one side of the capacitor to the other.

But, since Einstein, we know that mass is equivalent to energy.(E=mc^2
where E is energy and m is mass)
When the capacitor is charged, it has energy saved, which also means
that it has a (unbelievably low) mass.
So theoretically it should be heavier.

I'm not entirely sure about the last point but i think the rest sounds
pretty logic.

Hendrik Lüdemann

2012/10/23 Ryan Dewhurst <ryandewhurst () gmail com>:
> Sounds accurate to me.
>
> I saw this the other day, not sure how accurate it is but kind of relevant:
>
> http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/c25.0.843.403/p843x403/525017_10151286714802518_1541723172_n.jpg
>
> On Tue, Oct 23, 2012 at 4:05 PM, Robin Wood <robin () digininja org> wrote:
> > No idea why I woke up thinking about this but thought I'd share it with you all.
> >
> > A 1 is stored in RAM by charging a capacitor, so the capacitor is full
> > of electrons. That means if you set every bit in a 1G machine to 1
> > then it has to weigh more than if you set them all to 0. That would
> > mean that at any point your computer is getting heavier or lighter
> > depending on what it is working on.
> >
> > Is that right or am I talking rubbish?
> >
> > Robin
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