Turning Energy into Matter: Practicality Explored

  • Thread starter Thread starter wolram
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Energy Matter
AI Thread Summary
The discussion centers on the practicality of converting energy into matter, referencing the immense energy requirements, such as 25 million kWh to create just one gram of matter. While energy is constantly converted into matter at a quantum level, the conversation highlights that creating new matter particles from energy has no practical application, especially given the abundance of matter on Earth. Some participants suggest exploring the reverse process of converting matter into energy for storage and reuse. Theoretical discussions also touch on the fundamental nature of mass and energy, invoking Einstein's equation E=mc² and its implications. Overall, the feasibility of energy-to-matter conversion remains highly questionable in practical terms.
wolram
Gold Member
Dearly Missed
Messages
4,410
Reaction score
555
Physics news on Phys.org
If you're thinking along the line of a Star Trek 'replicator', I doubt very much that there will ever be enough economical energy available to create matter on a macroscopic scale, let alone manipulate it into a useful form.
Run it through your 'e=mc^2' in reverse, and you'll see what's involved. You need something like 25,000,000 kWh (after efficiency losses) to create one gram of matter.
 
wolram said:
Will it ever be (practical) to turn energy into matter? this site is the only one i have found so far------
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/exp/e144/nytimes.html
Energy is converted into matter all the time. Energy quanta carry inertia. Inertia, or mass, is the measure of the quantity of matter. Every time an atom absorbs a photon, energy is "converted" into matter.

I think what you are talking about is creating new matter particles from energy particles. The purpose of this experiment at Stanford is merely to show that matter particles can be created from energy, in order to gain a better understanding of the fundamental nature of matter. There is no suggestion that it has any practical purpose.There is no shortage of matter particles on earth. Why, on earth, would we want to use precious energy resources to produce new particles?

AM
 
Then if matters is not in shortage, one could think about converting matters to energy (temporary) and then convert back this energy in "another" kind of matters...
 
Energy to Matter makes sense

15 billions years ago our universe creates great amount of masses from enormous energy to us. Now, although we are in no shortage of mass, does that mean we should drop the idea of creating masses on our own hands?

Masses are abundant but not all precious. Many wastes are produced along with large amount of heat and light. Just imagine, if we can store the energy (such as unuserable heat and light) in a "package" of mass, and then reuse or unwrap the package to gain useable energy, that will be too great.

On my personal note, the nature and essence of our destination in the world of universe is to understand the process of energy to mass and mass to energy as well. This is the universal theme hidden in darkside of the power. It is miracle.

Einstein is famous for the law "E=m*c2", however is there a equation of somewhat "M=e/(c2)" and what does that mean?
 
Your equation, M = E/(c^2) is the expression for relativistic mass. For more information see our FAQ.
 
So I know that electrons are fundamental, there's no 'material' that makes them up, it's like talking about a colour itself rather than a car or a flower. Now protons and neutrons and quarks and whatever other stuff is there fundamentally, I want someone to kind of teach me these, I have a lot of questions that books might not give the answer in the way I understand. Thanks
Back
Top