Quote:
Originally Posted by anotherT34C  E=mc^2 refers to the rest mass of a particle. That is, the energy required to create that complete particle from vacuum. It may suprise folks to learn that this happens all the time. When you clap your hands, for instance, the kinetic energy of the particles that make up your claping hand gets transfered to the vacuum and 'creates' a few light particles. Most of the time, the particles vanish quickly in a blip of light. This is a smaller scale version of what happens in a particle collider. So I'd have to correct you that matter CAN in fact, be created. Energy cannot (well... not exactly).
I'd also correct you that the Earth is not properly a semi-closed system. The Earth + the Sun is. |
Matter was not created. It was transformed from part of the energy of the hands striking each other.
E=MV^2 where; M=mass of hands, V= velocity of hands.
C just refers to the velocity of light