If Mass <-> Energy was Feasible

[TristanLuigi]

I'm sure you could be able to compress it, take the energy and add a single atom to the center of it. This will make the energy act like a stem cell, copying the base atom.

That might work well for making a blob of a single element, but try to make something with a definite shape or a mixture and it won't work out so well, because it would end up as a big globule of stuff.

Not true at all.

It is, in fact, we already do it in nuclear reactors.

[Ad Bot]

[Electrk]

You can't destroy matter and you can't create energy. Period.

[Wynd_Fox]

I thought mass was just a measure of how much matter something has? I didn't think it was a concrete, physical thing.

[Electrk]

I thought mass was just a measure of how much matter something has? I didn't think it was a concrete, physical thing.

It's how much matter is in an object, you are right.

[Jubel]

It is, in fact, we already do it in nuclear reactors.

no we don't what kind of wizardry is this

[dorkdotdan]

Not true at all.

How the forget do you think nuclear power works.

[TheKhoz]

That might work well for making a blob of a single element, but try to make something with a definite shape or a mixture and it won't work out so well, because it would end up as a big globule of stuff.

Well, if the technology to do this was available, I'm pretty sure the ability to rearrange atoms in relation to each other would not be far behind, it might even come first.

[Electrk]

How the forget do you think nuclear power works.

It converts energy and matter. It doesn't create or destroy anything.

[ZSNO]

How the forget do you think nuclear power works.

Umm how do YOU think nuclear power works?
We fire an electron at the uranium atoms, sending them into a crazy unstable state and particles start to fly off breaking the bonds holding them unleashing massive amounts of energy.
The freed particles are them caught by the graphite rods to not start a nuclear bomb and the energy released then heats up the water bathing the cores and produces steam to turn a turbine.

Even after the uranium is "depleted" it is still there, it doesn't just disappear, what do you think nuclear waste is?

Although is it true we can somehow convert matter to energy, and vice versa, we really don't do it.

[Rub]

Lol this thread. If mass =/= energy like you kids are saying, why does E = mc^2 hold?

Mass and energy are interchangeable, mass-energy is conserved, since Einstein came on the scene we don't really consider them separate. Back to school kids!

[TristanLuigi]

Oh god....
What if we made a gun that shoots a laser that turns any matter in its way to energy
it would be like a nuke gun except better
and with a 99.999% chance of demolishing the entire planet (or Solar System)

[otto-san]

Oh god....
What if we made a gun that shoots a laser that turns any matter in its way to energy
it would be like a nuke gun except better
and with a 99.999% chance of demolishing the entire planet (or Solar System)

wwtawat

[ZSNO]

This is also a fun page to read
http://www.cracked.com/article_19668_6-scientific-discoveries-that-laugh-in-face-physics_p2.html

[Planr]

such a device would make star trek transporters completely real, meaning that it could become a deadly weapon in the wrong hands. terrorists could replicate bombs and teleport them into civilian areas. honestly i hope it's never invented, because if it did the world would go down into chaos.

[xxxxkill]

Isn't there something about conservation of mass and energy that makes this impossible or am I just stupid