This short paper deals with a possible link between a theory that I have previously suggested (an equation linking thermodynamics to relativity and gravitation) and experimental observations recently reported in the field of biology, showing that an isolated system can go increasing in mass if it is mainly occupied by living matter.
The equation, e=mc^2, does link mass and energy, but it also tells you why there could be no discernible increase in mass - the magnitudes of energy required to register an increase in mass are off the scale.
In principle, the products of any exothermic process have less mass than the inputs, but good luck measuring the differences involved, say with a campfire. Your very respiration decreases mass, but you will never be able to measure that. The opposite is true of endothermic processes.
From the lead line of the paper, I would not waste my time.
Ah, this reminds me of the time, over on Amazon, that I was involved in a thread where one creationist thought that the process of digestion of food involved nuclear fission. Heck, you wouldnât have to eat all that much, would you?
I once read that the total energy contained in a typical train ticket, a small slip of paper, could power a freight train going around the planet several times, if the ticketâs mass could be converted completely into motion.
That seems about right. I seem to recall a nice passage in the film (and book) Our Friend The Atom which made the point â I think it showed what the material inputs and outputs of a fission bomb were, and that they differed by only a very small amount of mass. But whoo-eee, that very small amount made a big, big explosion.