24th Sep 2012

You guys want to know something really cool?

We store information in electrons, and electrons that store data have a higher level of energy than those that don’t. If you download a song, the number of electrons in your computer doesn’t change—they’re just more energetic, and therefore weigh more according to e=mc^2. But the weight is incredibly small—100,000,000 times smaller than the weight gained when you just recharge your  battery.

So, how much does the internet weigh? At last estimate, the energy needed to run the internet equated to 50 grams: the weight of a strawberry.

And, insanely, the amount of information the internet stores—all the Tumblr posts and Youtube videos and millions and millions of websites—equates to the weight of a single grain of sand.

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    the internet weighs a strawberry. Okay.
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    Because SCIENCE!
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