The Holographic Principle
Explanation:
Is this picture worth a thousand words?
According to the
Holographic Principle, the most
information you can get from this image is about
3 x
1065 bits for a normal sized computer monitor.
The
Holographic Principle, yet unproven, states that
there is a maximum amount of information content
held by regions adjacent to any surface.
Therefore, counter-intuitively, the information content
inside a room depends not on the volume of the room but
on the area of the bounding walls.
The principle derives from the idea that the
Planck length, the length scale where
quantum mechanics begins to dominate
classical gravity, is one side of an area
that can hold only about one bit of information.
The limit was
first postulated by physicist
Gerard 't Hooft in 1993.
It can arise from generalizations from seemingly
distant speculation that the information held by a
black hole is determined not by its
enclosed volume but by the surface area of its
event horizon.
The term "holographic" arises from a
hologram analogy where three-dimension images are
created by projecting light though a flat screen.
Beware, other people looking at the
above image may not claim to see 3 x 10
65 bits --
they might claim to see a
teapot.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
