E = MC^2

[Scott E]

Hello,

Perhaps this is a silly issue but I am on the entities lesson and I can't find any real evidence that energy is matter and matter is energy.

energy : The capacity of a physical system to do work
matter : that which has mass and occupies space

Matter can be converted into energy, but they are different.

Scott

[Gustaf]

This is my perspective on it..

Is there essentially any difference between matter and energy?

Take any "object" of matter, say an orange. Zoom in and you find molecules, atoms, electrons etc. Beyond that scientists are starting to look at things like threads..  

I have meditated on this and find no end to it..  I zoom in and find bits being composed of smaller bits, those bits of even smaller bits... I zoom out and find larger bits. Planets, stars, systems, galaxies, universes..

Where is the matter? I don't find it anywhere.. Not essentially.   Experientially I find it, in the experience of the senses and the physical body. Then there is the experience of matter...  If I close my eyes and go into a lucid dream, I can also experience something that feels like matter.

For example I have swum in water in a lucid dream. I could distinctly feel the texture and gentle warmth of the water as I moved in it.. I have meditated on my Divine Beloved and felt something which is very close to real. What if I'd focus more on it? Give it more energy? Would it manifest?

To me matter is really a composition of energy and vibrations... If this energy and vibration can take one form, it can surely be broken apart and take another...

That's my take on it. Not sure if any of it helps though.

Namaste
Gustaf

: Hello,

: Perhaps this is a silly issue but I am on the entities lesson and I can't find any real evidence that energy is matter and matter is energy.

: energy : The capacity of a physical system to do work
: matter : that which has mass and occupies space

: Matter can be converted into energy, but they are different.

: Scott

[Scott E]

: Is there essentially any difference between matter and energy?

The difference is the manifestation.

Einstein said that matter and energy are manifestations of the same "stuff", only that they were in different states. I couldn't find anything that said that they were the same thing.

Something that I have been considering in my mind was the case of a nuclear reaction. If it were true that energy and matter were the same, then how would any nuclear reaction occur?

Scott

[Scott E]

In case anyone is interested, I have located the following article.

Light does not have mass - http://www.discover.com/ask-discover/?qid=31

So light energy is not matter.

Scott

[Scott E]

Hello,

I also went to one of those "ask a physicist" sites, and he confirm that energy is not matter, but matter is indeed a form of energy:

http://www.physast.uga.edu/ask_phys_q%a.html

QUESTION:  
"energy is matter, and matter is energy" Is this statement true?

ANSWER:
Matter is, indeed, a form of energy. This is the famous E=mc2 relation of special relativity. I do not think most physicists would say that energy is a form of matter, however. That would sort of be like saying "horses are animals and animals are horses"!

-------

And if there were any further doubts, here it is proven by a class of eight year olds:

Subject: How do you explain how soundwaves are not matter, yet everything is matter?
Date: Tue Feb 26 17:29:15 2002
Posted by Timanda
Grade level: undergrad School: Washington Christian School
City: Silver Spring State/Province: MD Country: USA
Area of science: Physics
ID: 1014762555.Ph
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message:

I am student teaching in third grade and presenting a unit on states of
matter.  I told the kids how everything is matter, either solid, liquid, or
gas.  My overly-precocious students then began trying to think of something
that was not matter.  After several tries one of them came up with "sound
waves."  That wasn't something I had ever considered before, and I wasn't sure
how to explain the supposed paradox.  Thank you.

Date: Wed Feb 27 08:01:05 2002
Posted By: Samuel Silverstein, faculty, physics, Stockholm University
Area of science: Physics
ID: 1014762555.Ph
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message:

Timanda,

I love questions like these. Some of the best scientific insights come from asking very simple questions, like "is there anything that is not matter?" You can congratulate your students for their critical scientific reasoning that brought them to the correct conclusion: not everything is matter! There are other important things including forces and energy that play an important role in the world around us.

Let's start with forces. Of course, we see and feel the effects of gravity all the time. But a nicer (I think) way to demonstrate forces is to take two bar magnets and bring them close together with the same poles facing each other. You can "feel" the magnetic force fields pushing the magnets apart as they move near each other, yet those fields are not matter.

Energy is all around us as well. Look out the window and feel the warm sunshine on your face. That is energy. So is the light in the room and the heat from the radiator (or is it warmer in Silver Spring than in Stockholm :-). Take a toy car and set it on the floor. Now give it a push. Now that it is moving, it has "kinetic energy" that it didn't have before. You have "added" something to the car that is not matter.

The world around us is actually a huge combination of matter, forces, and energy that are all inter-related. Your sound waves are one illustration of this.

Let's take the sound coming out of the speaker of a radio. The speaker vibrates and "pushes" the air nearby (force). The air molecules (matter) being pushed start moving away from the speaker (kinetic energy). When they bump into other air molecules (forces between molecules), their energy gets transfered to the new molecules and so forth, leading to a ripple of energy that spreads out from the speakers like ripples in a pool of water when you disturb it. In short, sound waves are ripples of energy moving through matter (air) via the forces between the air molecules.

I have tried to make this explanation as simple as possible, but I don't know how well it will work for third-graders. Please contact me at silver@physto.se if you have any questions, or would like to discuss how to demonstrate/explain these ideas to your students.

Best Regards,

Sam Silverstein