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Could your engines do anything useful?

What if...

What would happen if you converted 10% of the earth's mass into pure kinetic energy (E=m*c^2 again)?

Firstly, earth wouldn't survive. But assuming it did...

You'd be traveling at 0.222 c (22% the speed of light).

The nearest star is 4.22 ly away. This means that, after turning 10% of your planet into energy, it'd still take you 19 years to get there. Note that this is NOT a renewable energy source, and is definitely not green.

Some fun number comparisons:

5e19 J, the amount of energy produced by these engines, is...

• 38% the energy released by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
• 48% the energy consumed by the United States in 2001

4.949e24 J, the amount of energy it would take to propel earth to escape velocity, is...

• 1.3% the energy output of the sun per second
• 10x the estimated energy released by the Chicxulub meteor impact (whatever that is)