is it saying that stuff, anything from a brick to a fish, when broken down to the smallest degree made up of energy? so does everything in the universe share the same basic building blocks?
2007-04-15 06:23:52 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
More properly, the equation implies that mass (a property) is a kind of energy (like kinetic energy is a kind of energy). That is, everything with mass *has* energy, not "is made up of" energy. Energy is a property, like mass, momentum and charge, not a substance like water or iron that things can be "made up of". To say a fish is made up of energy would be like saying a bullet is made up of momentum. This is not just semantics because many people apparently (from the replies) do indeed believe that energy is some sort of substance, like they treat it on Star Trek.
2007-04-15 07:25:48 · answer #1 · answered by Dr. R 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Mass is a form of energy. Theoretically it's possible to take e.g. a brick and turn it completely into electric energy or any other kind of energy. All the atoms of the brick would then be vanished.
The sun is giving of a lot of energy each second and therefor is also loosing a lot of mass. So the sun is getting a little bit lighter each second.
edit:
I just noticed I made a mistake here. Of course it should read "matter is a form of energy" not "mass is a form of energy".
But all energy has mass therefore also matter has mass since it is a form of energy. If you heat an object it will become slightly heavier because it's mass has increased. The energy of heat has a mass that adds to the total mass of the object. It's difficult to measure because the mass is very small but it's true. Another example is a battery. When it's full it is slightly heavier then an empty battery since the chemically bound energy in the battery has mass too. And you can calculate just how much mass a certain amount of energy has by using the equation e=mc squared. e=mc^2 => m=e/c^2
2007-04-15 06:34:43 · answer #2 · answered by Voice of Insanity 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
You are absolutely correct. This is how just a little uranium was able to blow up Hiroshima.
Now days, nuclear bombs are much more efficient, but still only a very small amout of mass is lost to energy. Look at the formula. c is the speed of light. In the formula, it is the speed of light squared. This number works out to 9,644,812,226,400,000,000 ft^2/s^2. Multiply that by one pound (mass) that's about 9.645 X 10^18 pounds of force. If a nuclear explosion was 100% efficient, there is enough energy in a penny to blow up New York, and then some.
2007-04-15 07:19:09 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sort of. It means that energy and mass are different forms of the same thing. It is a connection between energy and mass. E = mc^2 doesn't necessarily mean that matter is made of energy or that energy is made of matter, it just connects the two.
2007-04-15 06:31:38 · answer #4 · answered by Superconductive Magnet 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
E = mc^2 means mass can be TRANSFORMED into energy and vice versa. It is like two different phases of the same entity.
Take another simpler example: solids and liquids. A solid can melt into a liquid and there is an equation relating the two involving specific heat, mass and energy. Yet we don't say a solid is a liquid.
2007-04-15 06:52:21 · answer #5 · answered by catarthur 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No. It means that mass and energy are equivalent.
If you totally destroy an amount of mass (m) then it will produce electromagnet energy (E) given by E=mc^2.
Likewise energy can be converted into mass (under certain conditions) given by m=E/c^2.
2007-04-15 09:20:18 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋