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Old April 8th 04 posted to sci.physics.particle
TheScientificTruth
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Posts: 3
Default What are we really made of?

I understand that most of our mass (3599/3600)comes from neutrons and
protons. I also understand that nucleons are made from up and down
quarks. I even understand that only a small percentage of the mass of
the nucleons come from the quarks, while the rest comes from the force
field that holds them together. But I have several questions:

1. Does this imply that most of our mass (85%) is made of a force
field and not matter?

2. Is it gluons that make up this force field and thus the energy of
the gluons that accounts for the 85% of our mass? Please explain this
strong nuclear force field in detail. How do sea quarks and mesons
(which I think are exchanged by the nucleons to hold them together)
play into this?

3. My final question has more to do with biophysics (and nothing to do
with the above), but I think it is appropriate to ask it here. During
an exothermic chemical reaction, a very tiny amount of rest mass is
converted to energy (supposedly). Where does this rest mass come from
that turns into energy? I mean, the rest mass of the individual
particles has to be the same right? So is it the rest mass of the
atoms or molecules that is decreasing?

Thanks for your help.
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