system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Does data have weight? Ex If I were to weigh a USB before and after loading it with data, would there be any difference (no matter how minute)?
gpt
Yes, but only technically. A “0” bit in a flash drive is a low voltage state, and a “1” bit is a high voltage state. The high voltage state has a higher potential energy, so it also has more mass by E=mc^2 . With that known, a drive that is completely full of “1”s will be heavier than one completely full of “0”s. For a 4GB drive, it’s on the order of 10^-18 g. This is an attogram, which is 1 millionth of a nanogram. Or put another way, it’s the equivalent of about 3000 *atoms* of gold. 

However, a drive filled with actual data won’t be all 1s. There will be roughly as many 1s and 0s. So really, it will be about half as big of a difference. And an “empty” drive won’t be all 0s either, since any data that was on it previously would still be there just delisted. Bits in the high voltage state weigh more than bits in the low voltage state. But an empty or full flash drive can weigh more, less, or the same as each other.