6 ms·
I guess storing all those 1's also adds some weight. It costs on the order of antimatter if you think of it. What's it like, $50 million per 1 billionth of a gr
by butteroverflow 7y ago
I guess storing all those 1's also adds some weight. It costs on the order of antimatter if you think of it. What's it like, $50 million per 1 billionth of a gram, or so?
- anyfoo 7y agoThe only storage medium I can spontaneously think of where 1s are heavier than 0s is punch cards. I hope that is not the current primary storage method in the aerospace industry.
- rudolph9 7y agoNo but it’s a good... punch... line haha
- sgillen 7y agoWell... technically most hard drives should change weight depending on their contents: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/31326/is-a-hard-drive-heavier-when-it-is-full https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/31326/is-a-hard-...
- anyfoo 7y agoOh wow. And now that I read this, it dawned on me that any memory technology that is based on storing charge (like DRAM) will have actual, albeit also very very theoretical, mass differences depending on bit value as well...
- lwansbrough 7y agoThe internet weighs about 50 grams: https://youtu.be/WaUzu-iksi8 https://youtu.be/WaUzu-iksi8
- mrob 7y agoHard disks use a run-length limited encoding, so the number of magnetic 1s and 0s remains roughly constant no matter what logical 1s and 0s you store. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run-length_limited https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Run-length_limited
- wumms 7y agoNit-pick: 0s (no hole) are heavier than 1s (hole). http://www.punctum.com/interest/punch/index.en.html http://www.punctum.com/interest/punch/index.en.html
- anyfoo 7y agoTrue, I should have said “weight difference”.
- DrStalker 7y agoSome storage systems work by holding a charge, and electrons have mass. In practical terms it night as well be 0 but in silly discussions on the internet terms it's a very small non-zero value.
- taurath 7y agoNow you've got me thinking about a hash checking algorithm by weighing the punch cards hah
- stillworks 7y agoInteresting thought. Weighing can add an extra level of indirection ! Thinking a bit more... the same can be done in software too ?
- dmurray 7y agoWeighing would only be slightly better than a simple parity check (a one-bit hash). It misses common errors like transposing two adjacent characters. However, you can get any number of additional bits by suspending the punch card from various locations along its perimeter, and measuring the angle at which it hangs.
- throw0101a 7y ago> punch cards Is hanging chad a 0 or a 1?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- phkahler 7y agoThey're in superposition.
- throw0101a 7y agoSchrödinger's bit.
- dougmwne 7y agoIs there any kind of energy, (and thus mass) associated with the decreased entropy of structured data files on a data storage device vs random noise? I don't recall the thermodynamics of data storage being covered during my college physics class.
- ineedasername 7y agoThis is why I always advocate for the use of specialized negative binary using 0 and -1 for weight-sensitive embedded products. For optimum weight characteristics you flip all unused storage space to -1. Careful though, too much empty space formated this way will result in negative gravitational pull and something like an Arduino with a high capacity SD card will float away.