Quote (Juanderful @ Jun 6 2011 11:23am)

Too lazy to read this entire thread, but just in case no one has answered in a simple enough manner yet:

Food is a good example of how matter = energy. We consume food everyday to gain energy to do stuff right?
So how does this food (matter) that we eat turn into energy for our bodies to use?

Food varies greatly, and is usually composed of many different nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals). These nutrients can furthermore be broken down into atoms at its most basic level. The special combination of these atoms make up food, just like how atoms make up everything else in this world.

So our body reacts to food by breaking down these digestible nutrients to energy by processing the food in our digestive system via chemical reactions. These nutrients are then used by various parts of our body to continue functioning, since our body requires many different nutrients in order to carry out respiration and all other processes in our body. The combination of all the processes in our body functioning normally, is then what we call "life". Life needs energy from food in order to continue.

So you see, Food (matter) is just a "stored" version of energy. Energy can be attained from matter, as shown by food. Thus they are synonymous.

Quote (Nihlathak @ 6 Jun 2011 00:45)

Uh, this is wrong. The binding energy, or the energy you're referring to that's "stored" in the nucleus is actually thought of a mass deficit, and contrary to making the system have "higher mass", the atom itself weighs less than its constituent parts.

Quote (Juanderful @ 6 Jun 2011 14:23)

Too lazy to read this entire thread, but just in case no one has answered in a simple enough manner yet:

Food is a good example of how matter = energy. We consume food everyday to gain energy to do stuff right?
So how does this food (matter) that we eat turn into energy for our bodies to use?

Food varies greatly, and is usually composed of many different nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals). These nutrients can furthermore be broken down into atoms at its most basic level. The special combination of these atoms make up food, just like how atoms make up everything else in this world.

So our body reacts to food by breaking down these digestible nutrients to energy by processing the food in our digestive system via chemical reactions. These nutrients are then used by various parts of our body to continue functioning, since our body requires many different nutrients in order to carry out respiration and all other processes in our body. The combination of all the processes in our body functioning normally, is then what we call "life". Life needs energy from food in order to continue.

So you see, Food (matter) is just a "stored" version of energy. Energy can be attained from matter, as shown by food. Thus they are synonymous.

Quote (Juanderful @ Jun 6 2011 05:05pm)

-__- are you guys being serious?

You're telling me that food isn't broken down into glucose for different parts of our body to uptake?

Food glucose ATP energy

That entire process is called metabolism, which is how mass changes to a more useful form called energy. Nowhere did I say mass was lost.

Quote (Kamikizzle @ 6 Jun 2011 17:09)

mass is not changed into energy during the metabolic cycle; it is oxidized. and most of the energy you get is from fatty acids not glucose/glycogen

if mass is not lost then how exactly does it change into energy? the sentence itself is a contradiction.

Quote (Juanderful @ Jun 6 2011 07:36pm)

Mass IS changed into energy during the metabolic cycle.

You stated: "it is oxidized" That's called glycolysis (a metabolic pathway when glucose turns into pyruvate). The free energy from glycolysis is then used to form ATP.

So, yes mass is indeed eventually converted into useful energy for the body to use.

Quote (Kamikizzle @ Jun 7 2011 04:14pm)

the free energy from glucose is used to form cta cycle intermediates. your body does not get its energy (or the majority of its atp) from glycolysis; cancer gets its energy from glycolysis.
and mass is not converted into energy during glycolysis. if you count the mass of all the reactants and the mass of all the products they will be equal. the energy you get from the metabolism is stored in BONDS, not in the mass of the nucleus of these molecules

Quote (lone500 @ Jun 7 2011 09:58am)

damn how many times we gotta go over this.

Quote (ian232003 @ Jun 9 2011 01:16am)

wow this took a turn for the worse...
the topic asked how mass converts to energy not matter to energy
burning wood gives off energy yes, but you donot loose any mass it is changed from the wood into weight of gasses given off and all the ash
mass and matter are completely different things and do not relate to each-other at all (think of an guy going into space he becomes weight less ie. lost all his mass but he did not loose an arm there for still has all his matter)
mass is related to gravity
matter is related to size

so to answer the topic

E=mc^2