Re: Mass and Energy Fallacy


Posted by Amaranth Rose on Mar 03, 2004 at 06:29
(65.172.150.222)

Re: Mass and Energy (Sam)

In the burning of fuel, chemical bond energy is converted to heat energy, a very mundane process. The statement, "E = mC^2" refers to a completely different process, that of the annihilation of matter such as occurs when atoms or particles are destroyed as in a thermonuclear detonation at very high energies. "E = mC^2" has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with ordinary combustion or "burning" of fuels or other components in a oxygen atmosphere or in general the oxidation of chemicals in the presence of an electron donor.

Please get it clear: in burning, the matter involved in the reaction is conserved and can be found, rearranged in the products, while the energy released by combustion can be found stored in the chemical bonds of the reactants, whether you are talking about wood, coal, or gunpowder. In thermonuclear reactions, a certain very small amount of matter is converted to energy in a really huge, massive way and does not show up in the products. What Einstein and others were showing is that the matter that "disappears" from the equation does not do so randomly, it does not "vanish" from the universe, but rather is predictably converted to yield energy in a precise, logical way.



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