Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Througherer

Going by this really good analysis...

But Apple's stuff is built more solidly than the Nexus:  aluminum, steel, and glass rather than plastic.

Redoing Gruber's weight estimates by calculating the Grams per Cubic Millimeter, the iPod touch is 0.00215 g/mm³ and the iPhone 4S is 0.00223 g/mm³.  Multiplying that by his estimated volume comes out with a weight between 416 and 432 grams if it had a similar weight-per-volume as an iPod touch or iPhone.

On this list, that puts it around the Kindle Fire.

Doing similar with the iPad 3, it's about 423,557 cubic mm.  For 0.00154 g/mm³ (the iPad 2 gives a virtually identical number, which is another good confirmation on this weight-per-volume method.)  Based on those two, it gives a potential weight of 298 grams.

I'd guess that just about 300 grams is a pretty safe estimate, and not far off from the Gruber's original 265 :)



(updated to show correct g/mm³ unit label.)

6 comments:

  1. I was thinking the same thing... Gruber was on the ball, but comparing apples to oranges (could I change that to lemons????) instead of apples to apples.

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  2. Michael, please! “gm/mm3”? “cubic mm”? Those aren’t the correct symbols and this isn’t an IBM Selectric, which at any rate could type superscripts.

    g/mm³ and mm³, please.

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  3. Do the larger screens require thicker glass to maintain strength over a larger area? Same goes for the back panel. I would guess that the density falls between an iPhone and an iPad.

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  4. I'd guess the newer iPad will use newer glass that's even thinner for the same strength. http://www.corninggorillaglass.com/news/press-releases/corning-unveils-new-gorilla%C2%AE-glass-2

    And yeah, g/mm³ is right. I just couldn't find the ³ key on my keyboard. Maybe I should have stuck to pounds per cubic inch :)

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  5. Nice analysis.

    FWIW, kg/L seems like a nice measurement of density (1 kg/L is the density of water) and would give numbers 1000 times the values you state, which would be between 0 and 5, and probably easier to read.

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  6. Please, everyone, it's a microliter: µL.

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