I can think of about half a dozen completely different answers to that question. Can you be a little more specific? Do you want to build a bomb? create a Sun? Hold matter together? Make electricity?

Setting that aside because if the weight before and after burning were both taken at the same location the would be an accurate comparison of the mass before and after. The next flaw in your statement is you are only weighing the "mass" of the match, the act of combustion, burning, causes some of the mass of the original mass to be converted to energy in the form of heat and light. Some of the mass of the match is also lost when carbon and other chemicals in the solid match combine with oxygen in the air to form gases, such as carbon monoxide and dioxide. Since you can't collect and weigh those parts of the original match you can't accurately determine the amount of mass that was actually converted to energy, some of the mass was not converted to energy it was simply changed through a chemical reaction to a different compound that still has mass.

I am thinking about making electricity.

You are correct and I apologize for the inaccuracy. It was your nest statement that confused me on the Mass vs. Weight issue.

"To muddle the issue, the increase is mass is ONLY in relation to objects that are in earth's gravitational field. "

Mass is not a function of Gravity, if you move and object beyond the measurable influence of the earth's gravitational field the mass would not be affected.

I inadvertently combined the two statements, and boy do you grade tough. lol Is there a curve involved?

Lol, I am fat, yes, and my balls are curved sometimes.

While what you said above is true, the fact remains that the combined mass as could be measured, by some instrument, of earth and the ball I lifted, remains constant, the ball and the Earth still gain mass, as their energy increases.

There is a loss of mass in my muscles, not biological, but physical, because they convert energy to lift the ball into work. The work becomes the energy of the ball and the earth, as they get distanced by a foot.

I was wrong. You are right. The balance is gained by the loss of mass in the object that performs the work to elevate en energy level.

This was well done. You get upgraded to a B+, but don`t tell the principal, please, because his principle is never to Bell the students.

Or was that never to ball the students? Darn it, I can`t remember.

I guess I just have to do both, and see which he bawls me out for.

The physicist: the forever experimenter.

I am thinking about making electricity.

Most of the heat produced by the Earth is not actually produced, and very little of it is due to radioactivity. The heat stored in the Earths core is energy left over from the formation of the planet. This heat is stored, below about 25 miles of the Earths crust, in the form of molten rock known as magma. That heat, 1000's of degrees, is pretty well insulated from us by the Earths crust. The technology to drill deep enough into the crust, in most areas, to utilize that heat on any commercial scale is not cost effective at present.

While geothermal energy is useful in some areas, it is a common misconception that geothermal energy takes heat from the ground and that heat is directly used to heat buildings. While this is possible in certain areas that are usually volcanically active, for most areas geothermal energy is only a supplement.

In most areas the temperature below the "frost line", usually not more than 4-5 feet below grade, is fairly constant year round. That temperature with slight regional variations is about 54 degrees Farenheit. In most areas that is the temperature that the geothermal wells are designed to collect and transport to the surface for use to heat buildings. Heat pumps are then used to raise the temperature to a point that it can be used to provide warmth.

As a Certified Well Driller, I am familiar with the installation of the geothermal wells and the subsurface temperatures. I am not completely versed in the operation of Heat pumps other than the fact that most of them are electrically operated and they require a minimum input temperature somewhere around 45 to 55 degrees to operate efficiently. For this reason most of the geothermal systems, residential and small commercial scale, are only financially viable alternatives in areas where the electrical costs are not prohibitive.

Geothermal can be also be used for cooling applications and it's efficiency for cooling is a lot better than its efficiensy as a heat source.

Then how is nuclear energy actually created?

Forgive my lack of understanding...

It would seem to me that since radioactive elements such as urainium emit ionizing radiation...

Why split them and create such problems as 'meltdown'...

Why not just 'surround' them with a containment vessel that contains an easily 'ionized' gas...

and 'leach' the 'electricity' from the gas.

Might not get as much 'energy' from a 'pound' of urainium but it would be a heck of a lot 'safer'.

by splitting atoms