What’s the Energy with Matter?

If you’ve read the title and thinking that I’ve got it the wrong way around or I’ve gone mad, I’m sorry it is the right way around and… well let’s leave the madness thing. What this is about is Eisenstein’s quote about the face that all matter is basically energy.

Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality.

– Albert Einstein

Converting matter into energy

It sounds like the mad ramblings of something out of science fiction, but thinking about it, matter and energy are always swapping place. For example, if something is burned like, oil, gas or coal the matter is being converted into heat energy. This is very inefficient as there’s lot so bi-products left behind.

Nuclear fission is another process for converting matter into energy. It’s more efficient but the bi product left behind is far more dangerous. We then have fusion which goes a step further. In all these cases matter is converted into heat and light, which is then used to generate our own energy.

But what about the other way around?

Converting energy into matter

In Einsteins theory of general relativity he proves that the absolute maximum speed limit possible in the universe, the speed of light is not achievable by anything which has mass.

The reason is that if we were to travel in a starship and gradually get faster and closer to the speed of light, the mass of the ship and anything else on board would increase. The way of think of mass is the sum of all energies of an object, this would include any inertial energy.

The problem gets worse the closer to light speed we get, so much so that at light speed we reach infinite mass. The reason that mass become infinite is because the energy required to achieve the speed of light is infinite. This is why it’s not possible to reach the speed of light, at least in the physical universe of Einsteins theories.

But the point of all this is that as you put energy in, mass increases. Mass increase indicated something is getting heavier and matter is somehow being created. No one really knows kind of how this works. It’s pure mathematics and so far the theory has held up to physical observations.

---

Matter and Atoms

Maybe a simpler way of thinking about matter is that it’s made up of atoms, which are made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. What determines different kind of matter is the made up of the atoms, so the number of electrons and shells the atom has. This all looks very much like our own solar system, with it’s core of energy and circling planets.

It’s also worth remembering that an atom can also break down into it’s component energy parts… so, this becomes perhaps a simpler way to think about the relationship and barrier between matter and energy.

What does it matter?

Yes, I know – a pun. In terms of our everyday this doesn’t matter at all. Everyone around us is the same, no different, just a bag of goo made up from star dust. But there comes into this the thought that even from a scientific point of view can we really dismiss the point of view that we’re just the result of a huge accident?
Was the sun or the universe lonely? We can look up and see the very thing where all our energy and matter comes from, we would be dead without it. One day it will take back what it gave us, one day we will return to stardust.

The energies of the universe combined to make the matter that makes itself and from that this microscopic smear that’s called life (let alone the human race) is living and thriving in the world and the energies that created it. Watching with awe as it all takes place. The universe watching itself, trying to work out what it all means.

How can that be an accident?

---

Copyright 2013-2024

Simon’s Space

My Recent Posts:

Blog Battle – I Cassandra – Part 2

This is Part 1 of the Blog Battle Entry for May 2024 and the prompt is Revest. I Cassandra – Part 2 Following on from Part 1: Blog Battle – I Cassandra – Part 1 It had been several weeks since…

Blog Battle – I Cassandra – Part 1

This is Part 1 of the Blog Battle Entry for May 2024 and the prompt is Revest. I Cassandra – Part 1 In space it’s really boring, even on a spaceship. All the moves imply that there’s food and swimming…

The Dancing Lights

Friday night was spectacular, the northern light put up an amazing show for much of northern Europe and North America. I don’t know how far south it went but from the south of england there were streams of light coiming…