Does an USB stick gain weight when you put files on it?

No?

Just find out how heavy an electron is then multiply it by the number changed. Simple.

It's not about the maths, it's about the principle *IF* electrons are added to the USB stick.

Aaaah, yes.

"Bert Harleman"

In an electric circuit - current flow is the flow of electrons.

In an electric circuit - the current flowing in any part of a loop is exactly the same.

So, when current flows from a supply into a load, the exact same current always flows back to the supply.

When you connect a capacitor to a DC supply, the exact same current flows in one end and out the other until the cap is charged to the same voltage as the supply.

So there is never any build up of *additional* electrons inside the capacitor.

The ones that were there all along simply move from one plate to the other via the supply.

..... Phil

You need to get out more ;-)

geoff

It would be impossible to give a complete physics and electrical engineering coarse in an email. I would suggest for you to take your time and keep up the perseverance to keep learning.

On the sub-macro scale in theory electrons and protons do have weight because they have mass. The answer is fairly complex depending on the exact nature of the action that is taking place in the device.

In all practical applications the weights of the protons and electrons are not even considered. And example is energy mass calculations are used in advanced physics when dealing in theories that employ sub- particle physics in dealing with nuclear devices, accelerators, space research, and with extreme high energy devices.

Jerry G.

On the whole, I doubt that data storage will involve a net change in the charge of the device, so the number of electrons will remain the same.

What I have wondered about is whether the zero and one states for each bit have the same energy. If not, then there would be a corresponding difference in mass.

One would have Buckley's chance of being able to measure it, of course, it being that small.

Sylvia.

Even if it was gold, or tunsten (very dense) that was being deposited when bits were set to 1

and all bits were changed to their "heaviest" state, I doubt it would be measurable due to the tiny size of the die, and the tiny size of the "cells" on the die.