David Thomson wrote: > Hi Harry, > >>> If E=mc^2 is true, and mass is converted >>> to energy during nuclear binding, nuclear fission reactions should >>> create a vast cold implosion, not a vast hot explosion. > >> It depends on where they are on the periodic table. Elements with an > atomic number greater than iron will release energy when undergoing > _fission_. Elements with an atomic number less than iron will release > energy when undergoing _fusion_. > > Another irrational argument. I know what fusion and fission are. Perhaps > you don't realize that fission is a physics process, regardless of what > element it refers to, and the same with fusion?
I did not claim otherwise. > Forget which elements are fizzing and which are fusing. If mass is > converted to energy when subatomic particles are binding (fusion), then when > they unbind (fission) energy should be converted back to mass, at least that > is the case if E=mc^2 means energy is equivalent to mass. This is the case for elements below iron. When a helium nucleus is split into two hydrogen nuclei the total mass of the separated hydrogen nuclei is greater than the mass of the initial helium atom. For elements above iron a split reduces the total mass. > You can't have > mass being converted to energy in both cases. That is one of the many > fallacies of mass energy equivalence theory. > SR may be intuitively displeasing, but source of the displeasure is in you and not in the mathematics of SR. This is not to say you should ignore your intuition and accept SR as factually true. After all you are part of the universe and if you feel yourself misrepresented in the dominant picture of the universe you have a right to modify that picture. Harry
