Scientist discovered how much the internet actually weighs and people are shocked calling it 'ridiculous'

When we think of the internet, we might think of something ephemeral existing in some alternate place.

But despite this rather abstract idea of where and what the internet even is, one scientist managed to figure out how much it weighs.

Of course, there are lots of ways that we could think about the internet when we're trying to calculate that figure.

One obvious thing to take account of is the amount of infrastructure which is required to actually keep the internet running.

For example, the Cloud might sound like your holiday snaps are floating about in the atmosphere somewhere- but in fact, they are stored on a vast physical server, probably locked away in a warehouse somewhere.

So first of all, this definition of the internet does not include the apparatus which are required to keep it running.

Needless to say that would be significantly heavier than the weight that Russell Seitz ended up calculating.

This is how much the network weighs (DrPixel / Getty)

This was around the weight of a strawberry, which is an insane thought really - that the entirety of the information on the internet weighs that much.

But what exactly is it that physically weighs this much?

Well, even though we might imagine the internet in an ephemeral way, it does have some physical mass - albeit a very tiny amount.

This is the electrons which are required to circulate in order for the network to stay up and running so we can stream ourselves playing video games, eating food, or sell our used bread maker.

The calculation done by Seitz calculated roughly how many electrons would need to pass through the internet to maintain the network.

In 2007, he wrote as per The Guardian: "An ampere is some 1018 electrons a second.

"Straightforward calculation reveals that some 50 grams of electrons in motion make up the internet."

That's obviously not including the hardware (seksan Mongkhonkhamsao / Getty)

Whether 50 grams is a lot depends on what it is you're weighing. You wouldn't need many almonds to make up 50 grams, but you would need a lot more grains of rice.

And with electrons, you need a lot of them to make up 50 grams, and we mean a LOT.

That's because an electron has a mass of 9.1x10-31 kilograms, or 9.1 divided by 10 31 times.

In 2011, professor of computer science at the University of California, John D. Kubiatowicz, explained that information does, indeed, have mass.

Using the example of an e-book, he said they often use a transistor to trap electrons and although the number of electrons don't change, he said, as per AZO Quantum: "The trapped electrons have a higher energy."

However, one person called the weight 'ridiculous', writing on social media: "Please elaborate. That is a ridiculous statement."

While others pointed out that this obviously doesn't include all the things we need to use the internet.

One wrote: "Not counting all the machines and cables that's needed to keep it running," while another commented: "I guess there is no hardware required to make up the Internet."

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