Friday, November 4, 2011

Does a Kindle get heavier when you add a book?

Since the arrival of my first Kindle in June 2008, I have reveled in how light and compact it is. Carrying around hundreds of books now weighs less than one of the books that used to accompany me everywhere. 

This week, I have been following a discussion on the Kindle weight debate, posted on a Discovery channel forum. Does my Kindle actually weigh more with my books loaded onto it than it did the day I removed it from its packaging?

When I download a book to my Kindle, the device is carrying more electrons than before. That means that, theoretically, my Kindle does get heavier as I add more information in the form of e-books. That said, the mass of an electron is quite negligable, though on a particle physics level this extra mass may be noteworthy and therefore calculable. However, the difference in weight would be so tiny as to not be measurable.

In other words, I didn't feel any difference in the weight of my Kindle after I added my newest e-book—The Nighttime Novelist, a writing-related read on loan via Amazon's new Kindle Owner's Lending Library.

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