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Mass and energy: two accounts, one subtraction

Follow the light-energy input, the two balances, the unchanged-offset premise, and the low-speed coefficient without assigning an absolute rest energy in advance.

Newly authored explanatory preview in modern notation; editorial and physics review are pending. This is not a German source transcription, this edition’s English translation, or a complete critical edition. The source faces and pinned facsimile remain in preparation. The paper has no numbered sections: s0 is an editorial route identifier, and the headings below organize this explanation, not a verified printed inventory.

One result is borrowed, not rediscovered

The light-energy transformation is an input from relativity; the body’s mass change is not an input.

Choose the emission that removes recoil

Symmetric emission keeps the body’s speed unchanged, isolating an energy change.

Two accounts of the same loss

The rest account loses L and the moving account loses γL; each balances internally.

Subtract what you cannot measure

Subtracting the energy losses gives L(γ − 1), without choosing the body’s internal energy.

The premise that the subtraction needs

The kinetic interpretation assumes that the additive energy offset is unchanged during emission.

Read the slow-speed coefficient

The low-speed coefficient identifies inertia; a finite-speed ratio is only a proxy.

A decrease, a signed change, and a conversion

The positive mass lost is L/c²; the signed body-mass change is −L/c².

The light has left the body, not vanished

The body’s loss is the radiation’s gain; distinguish a calculation, a broader inference, and an experimental test.