View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-law-of-conservation-of-mass-todd-ramsey Everything in our universe has mass — from the smallest atom to the largest star. But the amount of...
========== Where does all this stuff come from?This rock?That cow?Your heart?Not the things themselves, mind you,
but what they're made of:the atoms that are
the fabric of all things.To answer that question, we look to
the law of conservation of mass.This law says take an isolated systemdefined by a boundary that matter
and energy cannot cross.Inside this system, mass,
a.k.a. matter and energy,can neither be created nor destroyed.The universe, to the best
of our knowledge,is an isolated system.But before we get to that, let's look
at a much smaller and simpler one.Here we have six carbon atoms,
12 hydrogen atoms,and 18 oxygen atoms.With a little energy,
our molecules can really get moving.These atoms can bond together
to form familiar molecules.Here's ...
