From: utzoo!decvax!cca!BollenG.ES@PARC-MAXC@sri-unix Newsgroups: net.space Title: Re: Equivalence of Mass and Energy Article-I.D.: sri-unix.2582 Posted: Mon Aug 9 16:08:44 1982 Received: Tue Aug 10 04:09:53 1982 It's very difficult to discuss issues in quantum physics via pontification, and even more difficult when one neglects to define one's terms. I found Floyd's four-point message not only unnecessarily high and mighty, but equally difficult to understand. When fusion takes place, all of the constituent atoms must be in high kinetic states in order to get close enough together to fuse. The end products of the fusion must then also be in high energy states. The end products of this reaction are He, plus some very fast moving neutrinos. The neutrinos shoot off into oblivion, carrying some of the mass of the constituent 4 Hydrogen atoms, while the exited He sits and radiates photons until it gets down to its ground-state energy. So, the mass of the final product is equal to the sum-mass of the constituents minus the equivalent energy that leaves with the radiated photons, minus the relativistic mass of the neutrinos that are also produced in the fusion. It is neither accurate nor complete to simply say that the mass of the Helium is exactly the mass of the 4 Hydrogens. The above may add a bit of clarity to the first of floyd's four axioms, the other three seem to me to be even less meaningful than the first. So i won't comment unless queried..... but may i suggest that for a complete discussion of these and myriad other physical phenom's (as well as some very entertaining reading) that the physics text to look at would be Feynman's Lectures in Freshman Physics. Feynman was a Pontiff extraordinaire! Gregfish.