Talk:The Law of Mass Conversation

Even in chemical reactions...

...mass is not perfectly conserved. Mass is converted to energy in a chemical reaction, just as it is in a nuclear reaction; it's just that the energy is so relatively small that the changes in mass are minuscule. But in theory, if energy is released, the total mass of the all of the chemical components should be slightly smaller afterwards. I don't know whether or not modern instrumentation is sensitive enough for this ever to have been confirmed directly. Dpbsmith 08:26, 6 March 2007 (EST)

There's an important distinction, though. In nuclear reactions, the rest mass of the combined products changes. In chemical reactions, the numbers of electrons, protons and neutrons is left unchanged, so any energy released comes from changes in binding energy, not from conversion of rest mass. So it really depends what you mean by 'mass.' Tsumetai 09:37, 6 March 2007 (EST)

...why does this article actually exist, anyway? It's under the wrong name, history says it's been moved to the right name, and there is indeed an article with the right name. Tsumetai 09:39, 6 March 2007 (EST)