Forgive the pun in the subject line.
I've been reading odd bits recently about the fact that the "m" in E=mc^2 is mass, not matter. The corollary of this seems to be that in a nuclear reaction mass, not matter, is converted to energy.
That seemed to make very good sense, but of course I can never just accept something at face value and leave it at that.
This is a list of points I have gleaned from various sources; followed by a single question.
I have a quantity of matter and I measure its mass as 1kg.
That 1kg could also be said to be the mass/energy of the matter.
This means that the energy associated with the mass must also be associated with the matter.
Some of the matter undergoes nuclear fission.
Where the parent nucleus is more energetic than the daughter nuclei, energy is released.
Some of the mass has been converted to energy.
None of the original matter has been converted to energy.
This must mean that if I could collect all the remaining particles, the quantity of matter would be the same as that with which I started.
If I measured this matter, would its mass still be 1kg?
