Quote:
With particles travelling near the speed of light, you cannot just 'ignore' the energy (and therefore, the mass) loss that occurs, however minute it may be.
...particles in chemical or nuclear reactions are travelling at near light speed? No? That has nothing to do with the mechanics of reaction and energy gain.
Quote:
Err, large blobs of neutrons floating around? Look up neutron stars. They ARE, in theory, large blobs of neutrons, err, not floating around, but packed together very tightly in a bunch. Yes, they do not result from gravitational attraction between seperate neutrons, rather, they are left at the death of massie stars. If there were singular neutrons floating here and there, I doubt that they would be numerous enough to conques the vast expansion of space. Four MILLION light years is the distance between the sun and the closest star to it, Proxima Centauri. (Correct me if I am mistaken) I don't expect a micrometer wide bunch of particles to EVER cluster in a bunch. Even if, IF, a bunch of wanderign neutrons happened to come across, and cluster with each other, there would be trillions of neutrons needed to make a noticeable thing. And when you look at our chances of finding a small cluster of non-charged, neutral, and basically undetectable mass of neutrons, well.............you get the idea.
I know about neutron stars, but my understanding is that it isn't the strong force stopping them collapsing; rather, quantum physics. You're forgetting that all the matter we see around us is the result of gravity pulling together separate particles.