B Is there any macroscopic example for the "mass excess"?

[ORF]

Hello

In nuclear physics, the mass excess is caused by the nuclear binding energy.

Question: is there any macroscopic example where the "mass excess" is non-negligible?

Thank you for your time.

Regards.

 

[mfb]

A macroscopic amount of iron? Its mass is nearly 1% smaller than a corresponding amount of hydrogen and neutrons.

The nuclear binding energy can be nearly 1% of the total energy (ignoring the sign). The electromagnetic binding energy is less than 0.01%, and chemical binding energies in molecules are of the order of 10^-9.

 

[ORF]

Hello

Thank you for your answer (and good joke).

So, has the mass excess been measured for the case of EM binding?

Thank you for your time.

Regards

 

[mfb]

Sort of, as part of the nuclear binding energy.

Some experiments should be able to see the binding energy of electrons, but I’m not aware of dedicated measurements.
You can probably calculate it based on published results.