come on, PC geeks

so, if my laptop has a virgin hard disk and I then fill it up with data, will it (at some nano-eensy-weensy-does-charge-carry-mass-etc level) weigh more?

 

Roll up, Roll up, AT where are you ???

 

Good question.

The data written to the platter is done magenticaly, there is no new material being written to the data, the material is still there, so I can't see in terms of physics how it could possibly weigh more.

If there was any difference a human would not be able to tell. It would be milli grams if that. Putting a sticker on the laptop will make it weigh more however.

 

hmm,
i'm guessing that it would depend on the data written. if for example (and i'm not sure if this is how it works) a 1 is a magnetic charge and a 0 is the absence of a magnetic charge. then it's concievable that a hdd full of 1's will be effected (atracted or repelled) by the earths magnetic field more or less thus fooling scales into weighing the laptop as heavier or lighter. would the mass actually change well i guess what with e=mc^2 and assuming magnetism is a type of energy then on some level the laptop might increase in mass (or potential mass???). so i'll chuck a yes into the ring.
cheers


julian

 

I like where you're going on the scales, but on the mass - is magnetism a force rather than energy...? magnetism effects the 1/0 change to the little things on the platter, but what does a state of being magnetised constitute in terms of changed mass?

btw in a previous employer I had a team with a couple of physics PhDs in it and they never did sort this out between them...

 

I have a meeting with my supervisor on monday, he is a physistics and has a PhD from Manchester. Some of the work he does is on Steve Bennet's team, the British Nassa.

 

as magnetism can be 'used' i would class it as energy i.e. it can be converted into work, that work / energy can be converted into mass (theoretically - of course this would be tantamount to stuffing a mushroom cloud back into a metal box).
i guess though it's tied into whether gravity is actually energy or a distortion of space time. actually thinking about it magnetism is more potential than actual energy so maybe your laptop is potentially a different weight much like schroedingers cat is potentially dead.

cheers

julian

 

Herein lies the difference between mass and weight, no? The magnetisation of the drive means it's attracted or repelled to/from the earth, therefore will weigh more, but it will not have any more mass.

 

If you are lining up electron spins to create permanent magnets [ie '1's and '0's] then you must be increasing order/reducing chaos [entropy]. This takes energy. If it stores energy in the platters [because it's more ordered than it was] then, to my understanding, it has got heavier, because it is now storing energy.

 

to set your mind at rest no it cant possible change weight.

If at the very most phesable theory the forces acting on it could change how it is efectly weighted so seeming light or heaver. but that would be non existant.

 

well I'll be subpoenaing all you experts to back me up when I put in my RSI claim for shoulder strain .... :MILD:

 

as the resident hdd expert I can say an emphatic.....

dont know

This is one for the physisists(sp?) - the platter is magenticaly charged by the head on a write - no mass is added at anytime just the polarity at any location.

What happens when you go to perpendicular recording media? Or holographic media?

Buy a PDA and ditch the laptop.

 

Here's one then:

Is wind energy a renewable resource? Discuss..

 

I can tell you for 100% certainty that the data on the hard disk will cause no difference to the weight of the laptop.

The data is stored by the polarisation of the magnetic material on the hard disk. The polarisation or lack of just dictates the direction of the magnetic field. It has no bearing on the mass of the object.

The dust that your laptop will pick up over time will, however, have an effect on the weight. However, over time this might be countered by the electrolyte loss from the capacitors...

 

How can it not be?

But I see where you're coming from? The energy from the wind is lost when it spins the turbines?

If you want to get deep into things I don't know.

 

the hot air on the 50-odd page power cable thread over at HFC could have kept a few turbines going

 

Its all purple to me.

Bob

 

It all depends what information you put on the hard drive .
For example if you copied "War and Peace" on there it would then be heavy.