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