Preservation of Matter/Energy Through Time

[-Job-]

Kind of a hard question to ask. In our universe we observe preservation of matter. At time t0 my mug may be at coordinates x1, y1, z1 and at time t1 it may be at x2, y2, z2. At both t0 and t1, the universe contains the same amount of matter even though the mug is at a different place, and we say that matter is conserved. From a 4D perspective though it seems that i may move my mug forward in time a whole century, and even though the current universe will have less matter than it had before my mug time traveled, 100 years later, that will be made up by the universe having more matter (my mug is back in business).
Suppose the matter in our 4D universe (time being 4th d) is some amount M and is distributed throughout the time coordinate (as well as the others). Then, even after i move my mug from time coordinate to time coordinate, the universe will still have same amount of mass M, so tomorrow the whole Earth might have vanished and it wouldn't necessarily go against preservation of matter (it might show up at some other time t). Of course observations don't seem to imply this, what do you think?

 

[dicerandom]

I don't think we can say there's such a thing as preservation of matter, under certain circumstances we have conservation of 4-momentum (energy and spatial momentum), but there's nothing specific or special about matter there.

Consider, for instance, a particle/anti-particle collision. Mass is most certainly not conserved, but 4-momentum is.

 

[sir-pinski]

From a 4D perspective, it is true that the universe may appear to have different amounts of matter at different points in time. However, this does not contradict the concept of preservation of matter/energy. This is because, even though the distribution of matter may change over time, the total amount of matter remains constant.

In the example given, even though the mug may appear to have "time traveled" and the Earth may have vanished, the total amount of matter in the universe remains the same. This is because the matter that made up the Earth at one point in time may have simply moved to a different point in time. The concept of preservation of matter/energy takes into account the entire 4D universe, not just individual points in time.

Additionally, the concept of conservation of matter/energy is based on the fundamental laws of physics, such as the law of conservation of mass and the law of conservation of energy. These laws have been extensively tested and observed in numerous experiments and have been found to hold true.

In conclusion, while it may seem strange from a 4D perspective that matter can seemingly disappear and reappear at different points in time, this does not go against the concept of preservation of matter/energy. The total amount of matter/energy in the universe remains constant and it is the distribution of this matter/energy that changes over time.