Recent content by ShibbyMan1

So basically, Rest mass is just the total energy of something, regardless or whether it is physical or kinetic/potential etc? So when you say mass is converted into energy it could be anything and is not describing any specific thing.

My take on this is for your average everyday layman that has been taught fundamentals but nothing more. Usually when you ask a random person on the street they will tell you that physical mass is something that is tangible, you can hold or manipulate, proton, neutron and electron. And energy...

Well usually most layman see a proton as physical mass, and kinetic energy or radiation as energy. And the common conception I see is that Fusion is similar to matter/antimatter collision in the sense that some physical mass is being converted or released as energy. Thats what I mean by "lost"...

So the "mass" that you have lost is not actually physical but just binding energy?

How exactly would it be lighter? If we didn't loose any physical particles, what exactly was given out or lost that makes the product "weigh less" "lighter" than the original components?

Ah I see, so what is all of this I keep reading about? Such as "mass is converted into energy during fusion" There seems to be a lot of layman who believe actual particles(electrons, protons, neutrons) are lost during the fusion process. If there is mass being lost, what is this "mass" if it...

"Lost" as in actual particles being converted into energy (EM radiation). Such as proton, neutron, electron? Or in my layman terms, if the atoms were represented by legos, do we loose any lego pieces during fusion?

Hi simple question here, I was wondering if matter (actual particles) are lost from the fusion process.