Quote:
Originally Posted by mrchem
it is said in our book that when matter undergoes changes whether physically or chemically, the atoms are merely rearranged. no atom is created nor destroyed. (the law of conservation of mass)
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Mass and energy are interchangeable. A more fundamental law is the law of mass-energy conservation. Mass can be removed from the Universe by converting it to energy. (This is what stars do.)
The amount of energy you can get from a given amount of mass is given by Einstein's equation:
E = mc
2
This is the basis of nuclear energy. Small amounts of mass are converted to large amounts of energy when people initiate nuclear fission or fusion reactions. The amounts of energy are large because c is a very large number (the speed of light), so c
2 is an enormous number.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrchem
but what if i have a big bomb that can blow up earth and then vanish completely how can be atoms be rearranged if they are destroyed
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If we could scale up nuclear bombs so they were big enough to blow Earth apart, they would not destroy the atoms that make up the planet. The Earth would be scattered into the Solar System in billions of pieces.
The only way Earth's atoms could vanish completely is if a weapon could destroy them by converting them to energy. No such weapon is known.