The human brain uses 10-25 watts of power, equivalent to 10-25% of a 100-watt light bulb. A computer doing the same calculations would require 40 million times the energy. The brain can perform 1016 synapse operations per second with its power, while the most efficient supercomputer would need 500,000 times more energy to function in the same way. The myth that humans only use 10% of their brains is false, as all parts of the brain are functioning to some degree at all times. The brain has over 1,000 trillion synaptic connections, while the most advanced computers in 2011 only had about a million silicon neurons.
The human brain uses 200 to 400 kilocalories per day, which is equivalent to 10 to 25 watts of power. For comparison, that’s about 10 to 25 percent of the power required to run a 100-watt light bulb. An ordinary computer performing the same amount of calculations in the same way as the brain would require more than 40 million times the energy the brain uses.
More facts about the human brain:
The brain can perform about 1016 synapse operations per second using just that 10-25 watts of power. Most efficient supercomputer among world’s top 500 computer systems as of 2011 may only do about 2,000
million floating point operations per second (MFLOP) per watt. This means that the supercomputer would have to use 500,000 times the energy that the brain uses to function in the same way.
The 10-watt number may be the source of the myth that humans only use 10% of their brains. In fact, almost all parts of the human brain are functioning to some degree at all times.
The brain has more than 1,000 trillion synaptic connections. The most advanced computers as of 2011 only had about a million silicon neurons.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
