Re: the energy

["Spagna Jr., George" <gspagna@RMC.EDU>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Britton [mailto:britton@NCSSM.EDU]
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2004 10:51 AM
To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
Subject: Re: the energy

You wrote:
> It appears to me that

>       delta E = delta m c^2

> might be a safe way to express things to a novice.
> Nuclear reactions involve different masses and calculating the delta m
for
> Hiroshima and Nagasaki seems to be a popular exercise.

Another such exercise is to have students calculate the rate at which
the Sun loses mass based on its luminosity.

********************************************
"This is a great country, and it wasn't
      made so by angry people."
                             - Garrison Keillor
********************************************

Dr. George Spagna
Chair, Physics Department
Randolph-Macon College
P.O. Box 5005
Ashland, VA 23005-5505

phone: (804) 752-7344
fax: (804) 752-4724
e-mail: gspagna@rmc.edu
http://faculty.rmc.edu/gspagna