> the minor decrease in mass that occurs during the formation of a water molecule due to the conversion of some mass into binding energy according to Einstein's equation E=mc^2
Is highly imprecise at best, and misleading at worst.
It is true that the mass of the water molecule is slightly less than that of the oxygen and hydrogen atoms combined. It is not true that this excess mass is converted into "binding energy", binding energy is negative in stable molecules. That is the binding energy measures how much energy you would have to add to break up the molecule, or conversely, how much energy is lost (as heat/light/whatever) to the environment when the molecule is formed.
The mass is lower because it has been converted into heat in the environment, not because it has been converted into binding energy.
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I would call this an instance of the language model producing convincing sounding nonsense (something that they do quite often when asked about technical stuff).
> the minor decrease in mass that occurs during the formation of a water molecule due to the conversion of some mass into binding energy according to Einstein's equation E=mc^2
Is highly imprecise at best, and misleading at worst.
It is true that the mass of the water molecule is slightly less than that of the oxygen and hydrogen atoms combined. It is not true that this excess mass is converted into "binding energy", binding energy is negative in stable molecules. That is the binding energy measures how much energy you would have to add to break up the molecule, or conversely, how much energy is lost (as heat/light/whatever) to the environment when the molecule is formed.
The mass is lower because it has been converted into heat in the environment, not because it has been converted into binding energy.
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I would call this an instance of the language model producing convincing sounding nonsense (something that they do quite often when asked about technical stuff).