What form does the work take when transporting electricity across a superconductor, or laser light through a vacuum? My understanding is in both cases, working against gravity wouldn't have an impact, would it? Wouldn't the energy at the source of the energy/electricity (earth) be exactly the same as at the end (orbit)?
To address Doc's point, yes, that's true - but my point is that there should be more than that. The energy losses in the process of conversion are all inefficiencies, and would thereby result in the release of other types of energy (heat, light, etc.), reducing mass in an equivelant measure - but that doesn't explain the additional potential energy. I'm guessing there must be even further reduced matter, but that would imply that the "exchange rate" for matter and energy would be different depending on proximity to large masses... which doesn't seem right to me either.
I'm guessing the 'work' explanation is right, I'm just trying to wrap my head around the 'how' - how is work taking place to move energy into orbit?
