Floppy Disk vs iPhone! #Shorts
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Description
did you know that the first floppy disk was a whopping eight inches across don't ask me how i measured that it was introduced by ibm back in 1971 and despite its large physical size could only hold 80 kilobytes so for reference you would need a stack of 1.6 million of them over two and a half kilometers high just to hold as much as the base model iphone 13. not only that they were so unwieldy that they were already falling out of favor by the time the original ibm pc was released in 1981 with most folks opting for the five and a quarter inch floppies that you might have used to play oregon trail
The short opens with a surprising historical fact about the 8-inch floppy disk, noting its large physical size and small storage capacity of 80 kilobytes, introduced by IBM in 1971. The narration emphasizes how impractically tiny modern devices are in comparison by highlighting that to equal the base model of an iPhone 13’s storage, you would need a stack of 1.6 million 8-inch disks reaching over two and a half kilometers high. It also points out that these disks were already falling out of favor by 1981 when the original IBM PC launched, with most people opting for the smaller five and a quarter inch floppies used for games like Oregon Trail. The video uses these contrasts to illustrate the rapid evolution of data storage technology and to underscore how obsolete large media became in the face of compact devices. In sum, the clip humorously juxtaposes mid-20th century storage with a modern smartphone to highlight exponential growth in capacity and portability. The concise format and retro-tech drive make the comparison entertaining while offering a quick snapshot of tech history in under a minute.
Topics · technology · history · computing · shorts
Questions answered
- How large was the original 8-inch floppy disk compared to modern devices?
- The video notes the 8-inch floppy was physically large and held about 80 kilobytes of data, a tiny fraction of modern smartphone storage.