Preservation of Matter/Energy Through Time

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The discussion explores the concept of matter preservation in a 4D universe, where time is considered the fourth dimension. It highlights that while matter appears conserved at different spatial coordinates over time, the total mass may not remain constant due to time travel scenarios. The argument suggests that even if matter seems to vanish, it could reappear at another time, challenging the notion of matter preservation. Instead, conservation laws apply to 4-momentum, encompassing energy and spatial momentum, rather than to matter itself. Observations currently do not support this view, raising questions about the fundamental nature of matter conservation.
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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?
 
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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.
 
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
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