 |
 |
>when you destroy the mass, do you get energy (from the mass) + residual >electron (i.e. a bit of residual mass and charge), or did you destroy the >electron as well and get a bit more energry and no mass left and hence no >electron/charge left either? > >-- >Simon Child We seem to be asking the same question unless I'm misunderstanding. We've agreed that massless particles are not charged. The question is fairly simple in a way. If you had 1 Kg of neutrons (no charge) and 1 Kg of electrons (all negatively charged) would both give the same amount of energy through their total destruction? Incidentally off list an ex-physics graduate has suggested that E=mc^2 is an approximation (for public consumption) and that the actual equation does take into account other factors, like some of the energy, including charge that might be associated with any specific mass. This seemed perfectly plausible and sensible to me, but it does slightly undermine the idea that the underlying truths of physics are both beautiful and _simple_. Another comment was that the charge, eg. of an electron was (or perhaps could be seen as) additional rest mass (of that electron). Julian