[ModelBreaker]

I don't believe this is true. Those are examples of energy changing form - from chemical to kinetic and from stored electrical to sound energy. The energies are in addition to the rest state energy of e=mc^2 no matter to energy conversion required. If he wanted an every day example he could have used glowing dials in a tritium watch or a Geiger counter finding background radiation in a concrete building. On the other hand, the guy is a professor of physics so maybe I am missing something.

I had the same reaction to that paragraph. I don't think any matter is destroyed when a battery releases energy or when gasoline burns. But I'm not a physicist.

[Sola Veritas]

"I had the same reaction to that paragraph. I don't think any matter is destroyed when a battery releases energy or when gasoline burns. But I'm not a physicist."

I think you are correct. Batteries operate off oxidation/reduction.

E=mc2 applies to fission and fusion where the products of the reaction are slightly less in mass than the reactants. When heavy compounds such as U235 fissions, the byproducts have less mass than the original U235 they were made from. The resulting energy released (matter becoming energy) is that mass change times the speed of light squared. A little bit of mass change can produce a large energy release. In the case of fusion of some light elements such at Lithium and Deuterium, the fuzed byproducts are less in mass than the original Lithium and Deuterium. That mass results in the same energy production computed by E=mc2.

I don't think that make chemical reactions cause a net change in mass. Fission and Fusion are special cases.

[Polybius]

I had the same reaction to that paragraph. I don't think any matter is destroyed when a battery releases energy or when gasoline burns. But I'm not a physicist.

When you burn gasoline, matter is not destroyed but chemical bonds are altered.

For any particular chemical bond, say the covalent bond between hydrogen and oxygen, the amount of energy it takes to break that bond is exactly the same as the amount of energy released when the bond is formed. This value is called the bond energy.

[au-plainsman]

Yes, even chemical or kinetic energy can be be related to mass change. I believe the term used is "mass defect" and for ordinary chemical reactions and speeds we experience the mass defect is extremely small.

Here are some links that may clarify :

http://www.einstein-online.info/en/spotlights/binding_energy/

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/chem03/chem03534.htm