Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: wolram on 21/05/2006 22:51:16
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Can matter and energy be defined as different (entities), can matter exist without energy ?
A born optomist
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quote:
Originally posted by wolram
Can matter and energy be defined as different (entities), can matter exist without energy ?
Same thing different states.
Michael
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According to Einstein energy and mass(matter) are interchangeable, they are different forms of the same thing, under the right conditions energy can become mass and vice versa.
Laith
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But is Einsteins theory (literal)has any one poured energy into some
vacuum and created matter? and the reverse has any one turned matter
(totaly) into energy ?
A born optomist
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Ask an Astrophysicist
The Question
(Submitted July 24, 1997)
Why is it impossible, at this point in time, to convert energy into matter?
The Answer
It happens all the time. Particle accelerators convert energy into subatomic particles, for example by colliding electrons and positrons. Some of the kinetic energy in the collision goes into creating new particles.
It's not possible, however, to collect these newly created particles and assemble them into atoms, molecules and bigger (less microscopic) structures that we associate with 'matter' in our daily life. This is partly because in a technical sense, you cannot just create matter out of energy: there are various 'conservation laws' of electric charges, the number of leptons (electron-like particles) etc., which means that you can only create matter / anti-matter pairs out of energy. Anti-matter, however, has the unfortunate tendency to combine with matter and turn itself back into energy. Even though physicists have managed to safely trap a small amount of anti-matter using magnetic fields, this is not easy to do.
Also, Einstein's equation, Energy = Mass x the square of the velocity of light, tells you that it takes a huge amount of energy to create matter in this way. The big accelerator at Fermilab can be a significant drain on the electricity grid in and around the city of Chicago, and it has produced very little matter.
Koji Mukai, with David Palmer, Andy Ptak and Paul Butterworth
for the Ask an Astrophysicist.
Note in this example they start with matter, electrons and positrons,
i am talking about starting with (energy and vacuum)only to produce
matter, or turning a mass into its equivalent energy according to E=MC^2.
A born optomist