What came first, matter or energy?

[mfb]

A red apple is a type of red object.
"Red" is a properly of a red apple.

Ignore that there are apples of different color, for this analogy apples are always red.

 

[momo666]

Oh wow...I feel so stupid. Thanks a lot for the clarification !

 

[weirdoguy]

A red apple is a type of red object.
"Red" is a properly of a red apple.

But "red" and "red object" are different things, so I don't get this analogy... "Red" is a property, but "red object" is not.

 

[mfb]

No analogy is perfect.
You can also say "Is a red object" is a property of a red apple, if you want to have the object in both sentences.

 

[Khashishi]

Energy may be a property of matter, but it's a property of radiation, too! As the universe expanded, the energy density of radiation has decreased by (linear scale)^4, while the energy density of matter as decreased by (linear scale)^3, so in the early universe, the radiation energy density was much higher than the matter density. So you could say, in a way, radiation preceded matter. But you'd better know the details.

I think matter technically refers to massive things composed of fundamental fermions, like electrons and quarks, and the forces that hold them together. Radiation usually refers to light and also matter moving at relativistic speeds. (At relativistic speeds, most of the energy is in kinetic energy, whereas in ordinary matter, most energy is in rest mass.)

 

[timmdeeg]

(At relativistic speeds, most of the energy is in kinetic energy, whereas in ordinary matter, most energy is in rest mass.)

With most of the rest mass of the hadrons originating from binding energy however.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quark