How much energy is produced when the sun converts 8 kg of mass into energy?

Answer 1

E = M c2

M = 4 kg
c = 3 x 108 meters/sec

E = (4) (3 x 108)2 = 3.6 x 1017 kg-m2/sec2 = 3.6 x 1017 newton-meter

= 3.6 x 1017 Joules

( 36% of one million-million-million joules )

( 100,000,000,000 kilowatt-hours )

Answer 2

Providing that the mass you are refering to is Hydrogen, then it is the sum of the mass lost through fusion to Heilum. One helium atom has more mass that two hydrogen atoms. The difference in masses is converted into energy during fusion. There are 4.78 x 10^27 atoms in 8kg of hydrogen. Divide by four (two atoms fusing from two equal halves of the original mass) to find the new number of heliim atoms which is 1.195 x 10^27 atoms. Using the atomic weight of helium, convert that into helium mass and you get 7.943kg of helium. Difference is the amount of mass converted into energy which is .057kg. Plug into the famous e=mc^2 and you get 5.123 x 10^15 joules. For comparison, a 100watt light bulb uses 100 joules per second. Which is also the energy output of a person running. So, its alot of power instantly released.

Answer 3

E = M C-squared

C = 3 x10^8 meters per second
C-squared = 9 x 10^16 meters per second

8 kg of mass completely converted to energy yields

(8) x (9 x 10^16) = 7.2 x 10^17 joules of energy.

That's the amount of energy used by a 1600-watt hair dryer
running continuously for 14.24 million years.