Preservation of Matter/Energy Through Time

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the concept of matter preservation in a 4D universe, where time is considered the fourth dimension. It asserts that while matter appears conserved at specific coordinates, its conservation is not absolute when considering time travel scenarios. The conversation highlights that even if matter seems to vanish, it may reappear at different time coordinates, suggesting that conservation of 4-momentum (energy and spatial momentum) is more relevant than matter conservation itself. The example of particle/anti-particle collisions illustrates that mass is not conserved, reinforcing the focus on 4-momentum conservation.

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  • Understanding of 4D spacetime concepts
  • Familiarity with conservation laws in physics
  • Knowledge of particle physics, specifically particle/anti-particle interactions
  • Basic grasp of momentum and energy principles
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Physicists, students of theoretical physics, and anyone interested in the implications of time travel and conservation laws in the universe.

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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.
 

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