Can knowledge have mass? You may not be able to rationalize it, but theoretically it is possible. The data on our phone may also have a mass. Moreover, we can even explain this situation by basing it on Einstein’s theory.
If you are confused enough, let’s clarify how such a thing is possible, using the light of relativity, mathematics and computer science.
Yes, there is mass of information.
Information is stored on electrons, and although electrons are very small, they have a certain mass. At least that’s what we learned from Einstein, and using Einstein’s E=mc² equation, it is possible to convert energy (E) into something we can weigh. But before we get into the mass difference, let’s look at how and why the power levels change.
The difference is obvious when we add information to non-electronic things (notebooks, agendas, etc.). A full page versus a blank page. But the situation with our phones or other electronic devices is more than this. Data is stored as information encoded as a series of 0s and 1s.
Power increases as information is encoded.
Let’s assume that we ignore the factor that your device’s battery is running low. When you add the 50 cat photos you just took in a row to your phone’s memory or later delete the ones you don’t like, you won’t add or subtract the numbers we just mentioned. You just change them. So you turn 1’s into 0’s and 0’s into 1’s.
Clusters of atoms with magnetic-like properties in memory are accelerated on one side depending on whether they store a 1 or a 0, and have different amounts of power depending on how they are aligned. Memory works by either holding electrons in place or not. We can also say: They become more “energetic” while they are held in place, that is, while the electrons are encoding information. This is valid for every digital data.
Going back to Einstein, “More power equals more mass.” So technically, filling up your phone’s memory increases its mass. “So, are our phones really getting heavier?” If you say so, continue reading.
So, does the memory of phones affect the mass or not?
According to Weber’s Law, if the difference is more than 5%, we can understand whether two objects have different charges. For example, an average of around 7 grams of information is required for us to feel a change in the load of an iPhone.
The data of the entire internet is almost 5 trillion TB, and even this is slightly more than 1/200,000 of 1 gram. Therefore, to feel the difference in the scale of the phone, we would have to multiply the scale of the entire internet by more than a million times.
In short, although it is technically possible to increase the mass of the phone, a lot of power is needed to make a visible difference in mass. 200 GB of stored information is hundreds of millions of times lighter than a speck of dust. You can gently place your phones, which you will use as dumbbells, on the table.
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