Jack Harrison

[Jack Harrison]

I now have a little compact - Panasonic SZ1 - that lives in my pocket at all times (well, nearly all the time).

This scene was too good to resist and was only possible to capture because I had that little camera available for instant use.



Jack

[Jack Harrison]

Jack

[David M]

Suits you perfectly, Jack

[Jack Harrison]

This would make a good April Fool spoof but it's only the First of March.

Does an SD card (or the complete camera for that matter) weigh more or less when full of photos? I reckon zeros will take up more space than ones so an empty card might be heavier.

Discuss - in the appropriate vein of course.

Jack

[MikeOxon]

It clearly depends on how weighty is the subject matter

Mike

[MikeOxon]

OK Jack, you've had no more takers, so here's my scientific reply:

Memory stores data as electrical charge. Let's say an uncharged cell represents a 'zero' and a charged cell a 'one'. I don't know the capacity of modern storage cells but let's guess 1 picofarad (1 pF) and let's have a switching voltage of 0.1 v. (it used to be 5 v but has reduced to make low power memory)

The charge is given by volts times capacity, so a 'one' is represented by a charge of 10 to the power minus 13 (1E-13)
coulomb (C). The charge on a single electron is 1.6E-19 C, so the cell at 'one' contains 625,000 electrons Each electron weighs 9.1E-31 kg, so the cell at 'one' is 5.69E-25 kg heavier than the empty cell at 'zero'.

A memory card typically contains 8Gbytes of storage, or 64E9 bits. A card full of 'ones' is, therefore, heavier than an empty card by 3.64E-14kg (about 36 picograms). If your photos typically contain a equal number of 'ones' and 'zeros', then this figure should be halved.

So, the card full of photos is heavier by 18 pg! Mind your back

Mike

[Jack Harrison]

the card full of photos is heavier by 18 pg!

So how many full as opposed to empty cards would make a difference of a kilogram?

What is in the back of my mind with digital cameras being so prolific nowadays,if all these cards were full of photos this might be enough to make the planet heavier (more massive!) and thus affect the Earth’s orbit. Thus instead of hugely expensive projects to deflect hazardous Near Earth Asteroids, might it not be more cost effective to get every camera user to take lots of pictures?

Or maybe get the 1.35 billion Chinese and the 1.25 Indians to jump off the ground at the same time? (Hasn’t that been suggested before?) Actually, if the Chinese and the Indians jumped out of synch, the effect might be enhanced, but I’m not sure about the science here though. There would have to be a let-out clause for call centre workers in Bangalore as this would have a massive impact on British business, especially my bank. Ah, just had a good idea. Don’t exempt Bangalore call centre workers: transfer the work to the Philippines.

Jack

[MikeOxon]

this might be enough to make the planet heavier

Unfortunately, in this context, the earth behaves as a closed system. The electrons filling the memory cards have simply been moved there from somewhere else by the camera battery. Similarly, people jumping up and down cannot change the orbit. We would have to eject mass from the earth in the way a rocket motor provides thrust. In practice, the earth is probably collecting more mass than it loses, by scooping up various cosmic particles and dust.

In answer to your first question, there are 1,000,000,000,000,000 picograms in a kilogram and only 7,069,000,000 people on earth (estimated by US Census Bureau), so we need about 8,000 full 8GB cards per person.

Afraid it's another cool, dull afternoon here!

Mike!

[dave brown]

Jack,
I take it that Mull is very quiet at the moment.

[Jack Harrison]

It was a serious matter that I raised.

Mull has been lovely over the past few days:

http://www.weatherjackwx.co.uk/snapper/ ... 03pt1.html

Jack

[David M]

Your photo of the rainbow over Craignure is stunning, Jack.

Few places in the world are finer than the west of Scotland when the weather is fair.

[dave brown]

Nice photos Jack. Stunning scenery as usual. In my view Mull is probably one of the best locations in Britain for scenery and wildlife. With displaying Eagles yet to come Mull can only get better.
Dave

[Jack Harrison]

David M

...rainbow over Craignure...

I'm not very happy with that picture: it lacks character (eg, scenic backdrop). I have struggled to get decent rainbow pictures ever since I have been here. Throughout the winter months when the sun never gets very high in the sky, rainbows are possible at any time of day (radius of a rainbow is 42 degrees so sun needs to be lower than that). Rainbows in the summer half of the year are morning and evening only.

That Craignure picture, taken from the ferry, was a montage of two photos.

Jack

[Jack Harrison]

Isle of Mull

One possible Peacock on 14th March but just a very quick glimpse out the door. No other butterflies.

This shot of Raven and Buzzard needed patience to get them both in the frame.



Ravens have been hanging around a nearby sheep pasture as the lambs are being born. No signs of them attacking new-borns but the clear up all the other "stuff" rather well.

This fellow must be the daddy of them all



I wouldn't have thought many of the "girls" would dare refuse him

Jack

[Jack Harrison]

No - we're not going to do Land's End to John o' Groats. Maybe 100 metres to the bus stop clutching our free bus passes.



Jack and Stella 19th March 2013

[Mark Colvin]

Congratulations to you both.

Lovely picture ...

Stella's a brave woman - or were drugs involved ...

[Neil Hulme]

Congratulations and Best Wishes from me too. I would write more but I'm already late for a BC meeting this evening.
Neil

[Gruditch]

Congratulations


Gruditch

[Nick Broomer]

Congratulations and, all the very best.

Nick.

[dave brown]

Congratulations to you both. A lovely wife and living on a wonderful island. What more could you ask for Jack.