This sound like the premise of a bar trick, but not so.
Why? Because data stored on flash drives has weight. The difference is almost infinitesimally minute, but it is there.
The extra weight comes from flash storage storing more data in memory. The transistors in flash memory distinguish between a 1 and a 0 by trapping electrons.
Really love this science. And it was done by this guy, so you know it must be right. This comes from a 2011 New York Times blog post and the example used was a Kindle, but the concept is the same for any memory-based device.
Next -gate clickbait headline for the industry hacks “Apply lying about iPad weight” and “Apple specs don’t tell whole story, iPads heavier with apps!”
WTF with that website? Did he export his geocities site when they closed downd and stick on a UC Berkeley server?
weightgate
I can see it now. The FTC files suit forcing Apple to add an asterisk on the weight spec “*With Factory-installed apps”
Slow news day over at Cult of Mac, but they still got paid with us going over and reading something completely meaningless. What WOULD be interesting is how much money was added to their account from the pageviews for an article that holds nothing.
This seems to break the laws of physics. The electrons don’t go away with less number of apps installed, they are still there, thus the weight should never change. Sounds like a rounding error to me. This is the number one law people always seem to forget. You can’t create mass or energy from nothing, it’s always exchanged, but never created out of thin air, or apps in this case.
Do you really consider the scientific education of people about how flash storage works and that electrons have a detectable weight meaningless?
Imagine how many people might be intrigued enough by this new knowledge that is not taught in most high school science classes to go out and learn more. This is exactly the kind of stuff that should be posted. Not arguments over which ecosystem/smartphone/tablet/smart car/political movement/comic hero is better. That kind of stuff poisons the Internet. This is the kind of article that would have made me want to subscribe to a How Stuff Works podcast or watch more episodes of MythBusters.
Don’t dismiss it because it holds no value for you. Your shortsightedness and effort to attack rather than think critically is your own failing, not that of Cult of Mac or any other website on the Internet.
I figured the electrons were hanging out in the battery. So when you store something in memory, the electrons go squat there but the weight doesn’t change, but when you charge up, new electrons move into the vacancy in the battery.