Why do papers gone thru a shredder weigh less?

Question

I was at work shredding documents today and i picked up a bag of about 300 papers of shredded paper and it was so light. If these papers were solid why would they be heavier? I know its a silly question but I'm curious.

Answer 1

It has to do with the force of gravity. As we all know, gravity is constantly pulling objects the the earth's surface. Believe it or not, everything falls at the same rate. You can drop a piece of paper and a tennis ball from the same height and they fall as the same rate, even though the paper weighs less. It all has to do with volume. The more space an object takes up, the more air molecules there are to slow it down. If you crunch a piece of paper into a ball it takes up about the same volume as the tennis ball and will therefore hit the ground at the same time.

The short answer to your question would be that strips of paper have less volume than a whole piece, so not as many air molecules are touching it. The air molecules along with the force of gravity can make paper heavier. When it's smaller it doesn't feel as heavy, but it does still weigh the same amount.

Answer 2

Shredded paper has a larger volume this gives you have the impression that it weights less.

Answer 3

some of the shredded paper is powered and stays in the shredder

Answer 4

Perhaps you remember the old riddle about which weighs more; a pound of rocks or a pound of feathers.  Of course, the answer is they weigh the same.  So unless your shredder is magic it weighs the same