Do you know how much the Internet weighs?

How much does the Internet weigh? The seemingly "invisible" question has a surprising answer - Illustration: AI

Is the Internet as heavy as a strawberry or a drop of water?

In 2006, physicist Russell Seitz (Harvard University, USA) once put forward a bold hypothesis: if you include the energy to operate the servers, the Internet could "weigh" about 50 grams, equivalent to a few strawberries. This comparison is still repeated by many people today as a humorous way to visualize the "weight" of the online world that we are immersed in every day.

However, since 2006, the Internet has changed dramatically. From the birth of the iPhone, social networks, to the current explosion of artificial intelligence. If we apply the logic of physicist Seitz, the Internet may now weigh as much as a… potato.

At the same time, Discover magazine came up with another calculation: the number of electrons needed to encode all the data on the Internet (about 40 petabytes in 2006). The result was that the Internet weighs only… 5 millionths of a gram. That is, not a whole strawberry, but just a drop of strawberry juice.

While the approach is interesting, many scientists argue that this calculation is not entirely accurate, because it assumes a fixed number of electrons, while in reality it depends on the type of chip and circuit being used.

How much would the Internet weigh if all the Internet data were collected in one place?

The Internet has an “invisible emotional weight” that billions of people feel every day, through work, information knowledge, and both joys and sorrows of life - Illustration: AI

Dr. Christopher White (NEC Laboratories, USA) suggests another way to "measure weight": Imagine all the data on the Internet (estimated to reach 175 zettabytes by 2025) stored in a single place. Then we calculate the amount of energy needed to encode the data, then convert that energy into mass using Einstein's famous formula: E = mc².

Based on room-temperature physics calculations, the results show that the entire Internet would have a mass of about 5.32 x 10⁻¹⁴ grams, or 53 quadrillionths of a gram, a number that is almost imperceptible.

In recent years, scientists have begun experimenting with storing data in DNA, nature's ultra-compact and durable unit of information. It's estimated that 1 gram of DNA can hold 215 petabytes of data. If that were the case, to store the entire Internet, we'd need about 961kg of DNA, which is the equivalent mass of 10.6 adult American men, or... 64,000 strawberries.

Internet: Light on physical, heavy on emotional

Although the "physical weight" of the Internet is almost zero, it is still an "invisible weight" that billions of people feel every day, through work, information knowledge, and both joys and sorrows of life.

While it is impossible to determine the exact weight of the Internet, asking this question helps us better visualize its enormous scale and impact on modern life.

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MINH HAI

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/ban-co-biet-internet-nang-bao-nhieu-20250418154727054.htm