4 ms·
Small problem of how to make cuts at a subatomic level ;) (edit for pedantism and type of atom) at an optimistic 100 billion carbon atoms in length for a metre
by capitainenemo 3y ago
Small problem of how to make cuts at a subatomic level ;)
(edit for pedantism and type of atom) at an optimistic 100 billion carbon atoms in length for a metre stick, the maximum distinct cuts you can make are 100 billion, or 100 gigabytes of info. We do much better these days with thumb drives.
- chrisshroba 3y agoThat 's only if you can make multiple cuts (or slits), and it's actually 8x less because we're talking about bits, not bytes. With only one cut as the parent comment describes, you can only store the log base 2 of 100 billion, which is 36, so about 4 bytes of info, or one long integer.
- capitainenemo 3y agoAh true. 100 gigabits.. can't edit my comment now. But oh well, it was pretty rough anyway, so "on the close order" ;)
- jclarkcom 3y agoNot to mention thermal expansion which doesn’t happen evenly and trying to cut or measure would have an effect
- capitainenemo 3y agomaybe you're measuring by counting atoms with a scanning electron microscope? 'course at that point why not just encode the information in the atom layer directly :)