Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Logophile
we end up using "pounds" to refer both to force (lbf) and to mass (lbm).

In physics class they forced us to use the term "poundal". That is the one improvement I will acknowlege the SI metric system made. We don't have to use poundals anymore, although some still do [probably at some NASA Mars contractor's facility.]

I will have to insist that during the explosion of an atom bomb, or the operation of a nuclear fission plant, some mass is irreversibly converted to energy but this does not occur in chemical reactions.

93 posted on 12/06/2001 3:53:38 PM PST by RightWhale
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 89 | View Replies ]


To: RightWhale
I will have to insist that during the explosion of an atom bomb, or the operation of a nuclear fission plant, some mass is irreversibly converted to energy but this does not occur in chemical reactions.

You would insist wrongly, then. There is a mass/energy duality involved in both "nuclear" and "chemical" reactions. Nuclear reactions are just more energetic, generally a million times more energetic, so the mass/energy loss is about a million times greater than chemical reactions.

But there is indeed a mass/energy conversion involved even in chemical reactions. But it is so small it is next to impossible to measure the mass change. For instance, if you lit a match in a sealed oxygen filled glass ball, and the only thing that could get out would be light and warmed (conducted) the weight(mass) would go down in proportion to the energy lost to light and heat. Of course, it is such a very very tiny amount no actual scale would note the difference.

102 posted on 12/06/2001 7:54:23 PM PST by jlogajan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 93 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson