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Asked by to Alan, Deepak, Francesca, Lilly, Nick on 14 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Deepak Kar answered on 14 Mar 2014:
The atoms can be made to transition int another atom, but the total amount of matter and energy combined (energy is given by the famous equation E = mc^2, where m is the mass, c is the speed of light in vacuum) is conserved. So in that sense, yes the matter and energy is recycled in different form.
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Francesca Day answered on 14 Mar 2014:
Atoms can be split up into smaller particles (protons, neutrons and electrons), and they could also be destroyed entirely to give energy. We are all made of atoms that were produced in an exploding star!
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Alan Fitzsimmons answered on 14 Mar 2014:
Atoms can be destroyed or changed in nuclear reactions, but these don’t happen much on Earth. So yes, all the atoms inside your body were once in the air, or in the food you ate, or somewhere else.
But where do atoms come from originally? The amazing thing is that many of the atoms inside you were made in stars!
Scientists have found out that all the carbon and oxygen atoms used by life on our planet were made by old stars. These atoms were then released when the stars died and went into the next generation of stars and planets, and
eventually into you and me. We are made of starstuff. -
Nick Wright answered on 16 Mar 2014:
It is true! Atoms can be changed from one type of atom or another, or combined with other atoms to make bigger atoms, but you can’t really destroy them. So all the atoms in your body will have come from somewhere and those atoms have probably been unchanged in all that time!
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