I don't get it. An old colleague of mine told me that if you squeeze a spring between your fingers, it gets heavier? I understand e=mc^2, but I don't think it applies in this case?
Burning stuff doesn't change total mass does it? I say explain to people that what you eat and drink all comes out -- there's no nuclear fission going on in your body.
Yes, I see it now. Here's the thought experiment I used to better understand it:
If you had two balls orbitting the sun, each close to the other, attaching one ball to the other with a small rope wouldn't mean they suddenly are attracted by the sun more due to their combined weight such that...
I have seen an article about the Earth flying away from the sun due to the use of nuclear energy: the Earth becomes lighter as we convert mass into energy, therefore the sun pulls less on the earth, causing the Earth to fly away from the sun.
See...