How much does a post on a forum weigh? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: raspberrypi
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2017, 06:21:24 am
content: If we found out how much energy it used to make a post then used E=MC^2 and factored in earth gravity how much would it weigh?

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2017, 07:25:51 am
content: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

author: Paul Moir
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2017, 07:45:27 am
content: Which is the answer to whether intelligence is physical. :rolleyes: #doesntunderstandwesterntradition

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2017, 09:30:09 am
content: Enjoying your legalized cannabis, aren't you?These a pure philosophical questions. You can't weigh information.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2017, 10:16:36 am
content: If it's stored in hard drive or Flash or DRAM, it's probably on the order of hundreds or thousands of perturbed electrons (stuck, in one way or another; magnetically in the HD, electrically in the memory).The amount of energy associated with that change, times some kB for the size of a post*, is down in the nano or picojoules. So, the relativistic mass change** will be very, very small indeed, in fact many orders of magnitude below the mass error that is inherent in a macroscopic clump of atoms: you physically cannot measure mass accurately enough (due to binding energy, temperature, internal disorder and so on) to be able to count the atoms!*But should we also count the knock-on effects of updating the database so the post is linked into the system? It may be in the 10s of kB, on a per-post basis. Maybe a whole lot more, I have no idea... Oh, and is this just in final storage, or are we counting the changes in all the intermediate caches too?Alright, nevermind...**The mass doesn't really change, because on average, the system hasn't gained or lost much energy. That is, given a compressed (looks like random noise!) data stream, the entropy is pretty much the same, for any input you might have. It's about half ones and half zeroes! Moreover, symmetrical systems (like the HD's magnetic bits) won't really store energy (the particles are magnetized regardless -- just in + or - directions). Asymmetrical systems will, like memory (which holds a static electric field, or nothing).Perhaps a more interesting theoretical question is, how much energy isneeded?We're something like 6 orders of magnitude away from the information-theoretic limit, which comes from the amount of energy needed to transition a (quantum) system from one state to another, in a finite time (comparable to modern clock rates). And that limit is something like 10 orders of magnitude away from relativistically measurable information change [citation needed], so the concept of "relativistic information theory" is a very ponderous one, indeed.Tim

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2017, 11:23:02 am
content: Quote from: raspberrypi on January 05, 2017, 06:21:24 amI suspect, that there is a probability of a particular forum post, getting printed out on paper (hard copy).Example with hypothetical figures, as I don't know what the real figures are:Probability of a forum post being printed is 1 in 10,000Weight of a forum post printout (assuming it is printed onto a single page of A4) = 4.5 gramsSo weight of each forum post = 4.5/10,000 = 0.00045 gramsI suspect that is the overriding weight of a post, compared to the electrons that flow, and magnetic disk changes (or SSD) etc.So in very rough terms it might be one milligram per forum post.N.B. Don't forget that a huge number of internet users, may print out, a particularly good/exceptional/useful post.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2017, 11:24:15 am
content: For me, it weighs heavily on my conscience.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 05, 2017, 01:56:26 pm
content: It was posted just for fun, not that I'm agreeing with what he's saying.

author: raspberrypi
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2017, 11:23:15 pm
content: I found this one too:https://youtu.be/Do1lm9IevYEHow much does a shadow weigh. How do I embed this into a youtube player within the post?

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 07, 2017, 11:39:46 pm
content: How much does a henweigh?

author: gibbled
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 02:35:27 am
content: Quote from: GreyWoolfe on January 07, 2017, 11:39:46 pmHow long is a piece of string?

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 06:20:52 am
content: Quote from: gibbled on January 08, 2017, 02:35:27 amHow big is a bucket?

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 07:16:01 am
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on January 08, 2017, 06:20:52 amif you half fill it.Is it then half full or half empty ?Or back on topic.Does a 50 line post weigh double or at least a bit more, than a 25 line post (always 70 non-space chars per line, for all lines, to ensure accurate results) ?Or does a 25 line and 50 line post, weigh the same ?

author: Spuddevans
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 09:42:05 am
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on January 08, 2017, 06:20:52 amIf you are digging a hole, and you stop half-way, do you have half a hole or a whole hole?Tim

author: timb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 01:03:05 pm
content: Quote from: Spuddevans on January 08, 2017, 09:42:05 amIf you loose the whole thing, do you still have a tight whole or a lose hole?

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 03:14:09 pm
content: Quote from: timb on January 08, 2017, 01:03:05 pmA hole stopped half way is still a whole hole but a half a hole compared to what's needed, all a matter of perspective. Any part of the hole dug is still a whole hole regardless of how far along is the digging process you are. I would never go for a loose hole, who really wants a loose hole, happiness is a tight hole.have weyet?

author: slicendice
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 03:57:05 pm
content: Quote from: T3sl4co1l on January 05, 2017, 10:16:36 amBest answer ever, love it!(read the full text, not my quote)

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 04:03:07 pm
content: Quote from: GreyWoolfe on January 08, 2017, 03:14:09 pmno.How smart is a smart guy?

author: 4cx10000
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 04:18:25 pm
content: Of course a single character weighs less than two! As an example: if you write a single post on a forum it all depends on how many characters a message contain with chosen font face, font size, bold or not and finally how fast you write. When it comes to writing speed it gets quite complicated!! To high speed often causes what called pixel losses and therefore less weight per character and that's good. Using PS2 keyboard will help a lot but an USB 3 - less pixel losses - causes big stress on the server because of full weight characters and could, in worst case, cause a serious weight phenomena and at the end, a severe server crash...

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 05:11:05 pm
content: As this is a purely rhetoricalquestion, let's weigh forum posts on their storage medium. We could calculate the mass of information by relating it to the media storage density and physical mass.Let me kick off with a traditional HDD platter:http://superuser.com/questions/11423/how-much-does-a-gigabyte-worth-of-data-physically-weigh-on-a-hard-disk?answertab=votes#tab-top1GB weighs 0.617 ugram, then 1 byte weighs 0.575 femto gram (10^-15).E=mc^2, it is about 51.7 Joules of material per byte.If we consider 1 post taking ~1 byte of text up to a couple of MB including pictures, you could argue that 1 post weighs maybe a few pico or nano grams.This is of course excluding harddrive casing, electronics, etc. but that's harder to quantify considering 2.5" and 3.5" form factor drives.In fact, the harddrive will probably way just as much as without forum posts on it. So.. great to know these calculations were meaningless.

author: Tom45
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2017, 05:57:17 pm
content: This thread reminds me of a story I heard long ago.A software developer in the aerospace industry was under fire from a boss because he hadn't submitted a weight budget for his part of the project. His response was that software has no weight. The boss picked up a deck of punched cards on his desk and said look at this, of course it has weight. The programmer's response: but we just use the holes.