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Hey just a thought experiment. Future spacecraft flying through space at say .9c. Mid flight it erases its enormous hard drive and losses a few grams. Does it

Hey just a thought experiment. Future spacecraft flying through space at say .9c. Mid flight it erases its enormous hard drive and losses a few grams. Does it speed up? How is momentum conserved?

krastanov 7y ago
No, because the erasure of the information (irreversible process) will create heat (this is one of the postulates of thermodynamics). Heat is energy which also has mass. It is fascinating how nature provides for these amazing "near coincidences" and then finds a way to close the loophole.
- mrfusion 7y ago
  Hmm. But the heat could be dissipated.
  - krastanov 7y ago
    Oh, good point! But you can also just throw the hard drive out of the airlock ;)
  - ericlewis 7y ago
    true, but hard in a vacuum.