So if you have an empty memory card compared to one which is full with say 64GB of data (or any other large amount). If you weighed them both on an incredibly sensitive scales, would there be a difference in the weight?
Essentially I’m asking does data/computer memory have any mass?
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Yes, but only technically. Flash memory works by depositing electrons on ‘floating gates’, which would increase the weight by a very tiny amount. However that doesn’t mean data has mass. I mean, think about it. Whether the drive is full or empty it has the same amount of data. ten trillion ones is the same amount of data as ten trillion zeros, when represented individually. Same for any combination. You could create a protocol that uses a *lack* electrons to note a one and the presence of electrons to note a zero, which would mean that writing data to ta disk of all 0’s would cause its weight to *decrease.*
Edit: I’ve been told that flash memory actually does use a charge to represent zero and no charge to represent a one. Neat.
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