Energy as a 5th state of matter?

[Brainguy]

Hi, I'm new to particle physics, and recently became a little bit interested in antimatter. einstein said that energy is just matter in a different form. I came to that conclusion on my own even before reading about E=mc squared, and I wonder: could energy be considered a state of matter? I thought that it was AMAZING that a gram of water could unleash such energy in total annihilation. That would probably mean that energy is the least dense of all states of matter, because if a liquid, which is realetivelly un-dense is equivalent to ALL this energy, it seems pretty tightly packed in comparison. Now imagine we found an endless supply of antimatter on the moon, and mined millions of kilograms of antititanium. Titanium is the most dense material I could think of off the top of my head, so imagine how much energy could be released! we could have our mining robots back on Earth in a week with antititanium to spare! And I thought nuclear bombs were powerful...
well, thanks for listening!
~Brainguy

 

[DragonPetter]

lol..
Anyway, the state of matter/energy, and the energy/matter of that state are two separate ideas. Energy is not a state of matter. By saying energy and matter are equivalent, your question is equivalent to implying "matter is a state of matter" or "energy is a state of energy". Energy density can be high, just like matter density; energy is not defined as a least dense state of matter.

 

[cephron]

I'd be more inclined to think of matter as being a state of energy :)

 

[phinds]

Now imagine we found an endless supply of antimatter on the moon

We've had folks ON the moon so for that and other reasons, we are confident that the moon is matter. There's no antimatter there. If you want to even IMAGINE large bodies of antimatter you have have to think of them as floating freely in space (but I believe that has been totally ruled out as well, though I can't quote you a source).

 

[Dale]

could energy be considered a state of matter?

Energy is a property of matter, not a state of matter. A state of matter is distinguished from other states of matter through a phase transition, and not necessarily an energy transfer.

 

[Drakkith]

I wouldn't even say energy is a property of matter or anything else. It simply describes the availability for a system to perform work. I see it as more of a "pseudo force" if you get my drift. Saying that a process produces X amount of energy can be restated as the process enables you to enact X amount of change on another system. I wish I could explain it better, but I'm generally horrible at explaining things.

 

[khemist]

Could one consider matter a state of energy? Could I consider matter to be energy that is compressed and generally stable (for say, a proton or any other elementary particle)?

 

[DragonPetter]

Could one consider matter a state of energy? Could I consider matter to be energy that is compressed and generally stable (for say, a proton or any other elementary particle)?

I don't think so. I think you stray when you ask "Could I consider matter to be energy that is compressed and generally stable".

 

[khemist]

Upon thinking about it I think I answered my own question. Thanks for the reality check LOL