Turning Energy into Matter: Practicality Explored

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers on the practicality of turning energy into matter, exploring theoretical and conceptual implications rather than practical applications. Participants examine the feasibility of such processes, referencing both scientific principles and speculative ideas.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Conceptual clarification
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions the practicality of creating matter from energy, suggesting that the energy requirements are prohibitively high.
  • Another participant argues that energy is constantly being converted into matter at a quantum level, such as when atoms absorb photons, but questions the need for creating new matter particles.
  • A different viewpoint suggests that while matter is abundant, there could be potential in converting matter to energy temporarily and then back to a different kind of matter.
  • One participant reflects on the historical context of mass creation in the universe and proposes the idea of packaging unusable energy into mass for future use.
  • Another participant provides a mathematical expression for relativistic mass, referencing Einstein's equation.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing views on the practicality and implications of converting energy into matter. There is no consensus on whether such processes could be feasible or beneficial.

Contextual Notes

The discussion includes assumptions about energy requirements and the nature of matter, which remain unresolved. The implications of converting matter to energy and back are also not fully explored.

Who May Find This Useful

This discussion may be of interest to those exploring theoretical physics, energy conversion concepts, and the philosophical implications of mass-energy relationships.

wolram
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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.
 

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