Thursday, May 31, 2007

How Much Does the Internet Weigh?

This. Is. Too. Cool.

So cool, in fact, that even though it is not at all food-related (my one rule for this blog is that it be food related), I am posting it anyway.

How much does the internet weigh? Discover Magazine found out:


Taking [one scientist's] 40-petabyte figure [for the total size of the internet] and plugging it into the...formula that we worked out for our 50-kilobyte e-mail results in a grand total of 1.3 x 10-8 pound. At last, after much scribbling (and perhaps a little cursing), we had our answer: The weight of the Internet adds up to just about 0.2 millionths of an ounce.

I just can't add anything to that. But it'd be one helluva small measuring cup to fit it into.

1 comments:

John said...

Another blogger came to a different weight for the internet last year. Russell Seitz (at adamant.typepad.com) computes the actual weight at two ounces - which is a bit heavier. Still not that heavy, though. Pointed out to me by the author of said blog.