🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 5 Dec 1996, Jason C. Wenger wrote:
> I believe that in very special cases, especially nuclear reactions,
> (fusion reactions in particular???), that mass will change and become
> VERY slightly smaller (.00001% or something like that).  Thus,
> scientists have assumed that a VERY SMALL amount of direct mass to
> energy conversion has taken place.
> 
> Can anyone back me up on this?

	Yes, mass does change, that's exactly what Einstien's equation
says.  Mass and energy are interchangable, although a very small amount of
mass, on the order of grams, is equivalent to huge amounts of energy, on
the order of a nuclear explosion.  That's all a fission bomb or
reactor does, is splits a whole load of atoms, in the process destroying a
miniscule amount of mass, and releasing a whole lot of energy.  Odds are
if you live in the U.S. you get at least some of your electric power from
plants that use this process.

Those not interested in gruesome details can stop here.

	Now look at Einstein's equation:  e=m*c^2, done out longhand, this
becomes...

	Energy = Mass(in grams) x (3x10^8 meters/second)^2
or
	Energy = Mass(in grams) x 9x10^16 meters^2/second^2
which gives us:
	Energy = 1 Erg x Mass(grams)
or
	Energy = 625000MeV x Mass(grams)

so for every _gram_ of mass you can convert to energy, you release
625000MeV, or about 10^15 (a ten followed by 15 zeros) Joules, of energy.  
That's a _lot_ of energy.  The equation also runs in the  opposite
direction, ie: that much energy can create that much mass.  Creation of
matter is, as far as I am aware, only hypothesised so far, and is thought
to occur on the order of pairs of oppositely charged "virtual particles"
existing for millionths of a second and then changing back into energy.
Something comes to mind about black holes "leaking" energy through this
process, but I'm not 100% sure about it or the mechanism behind it.