What happens in a particle accelerator?

What ever gave you the idea that energy is an arbitrary mathematical quantity? The conservation law means nothing to you?

Zz.

 

That's what the guy said after he got struck by lightning.

 

It isn't anything "physical"? Give me an example of what you think is "physical", and I'll show you "energy".

We can explain what actually happens in a particle collider (this is not a particle accelerator question). However, what occurs in such a collision has nothing to do with your superficial understanding of the importance of energy concepts. It IS physical. In fact, Quantum Mechanics is built upon such a thing (look at what is involved in setting up the Schrodinger equation). So do you think your electronics actually work based on something that isn't physical? That heat you feel from the sun isn't physical?

Zz.

 

And you buy that?

What if I tell you that energy is a physical quantity? Why won't you buy that? And I'm basing it on something we have verified! String theory has no experimental/empirical verification! You put your eggs in such an uncertain basket and called it a day? Is this rational? This is what happens when you try to run before even learning how to walk.

Look up in a classical mechanics something called "Lagrangian/Hamiltonian mechanics". It is ALL energy! It is as valid and as physical as forces, charge, etc.

You should had just asked what happened in a particle collider. Prefacing it with your lack of understanding of what energy is and how important it is has clearly derailed this thread.

Zz.

 

Electronics work due to quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics, if you care to learn it, is all about understanding the kinetic and potential energy term in the Hamiltonian. That is the starting point in describing any system.

"Forces" are directly related to energy. If you think energy is unphysical, and then so are forces.

Zz.

 

If you think that energy is an arbitrary mathematical quantity, then yes, you will never make any sense out of what occurs in a particle collider. In fact, you will never make any sense out of practically every single phenomena you see.

So I think that answers your original question.

I'm done.

Zz.

 

Because you come off as arrogant and stubborn about topics you know almost nothing about.

Do you think an atomic bomb is physical? Have you ever looked into the physics of how nuclear fission or fusion works? Just because something isn't easy to put into words or a simple picture, doesn't mean it's not "physical".

You seem to think that electrons are physical and that they are somehow simple and easy to grasp. Yet if you actually knew anything about quantum mechanics, you wouldn't be so sure anymore. You just associate an electron with a little ball, and you base what you call "physical" on these unrealistic and vastly oversimplified pictures.

By your standards, if you actually spent the time to appreciate the complexity, then nothing would appear physical to you.

 

Not really, because by any definition you pick, if you want to classify something like an electron as "physical" (which is an example the OP used) then energy is physical too.

Honestly it's a silly question, but there are occasions where in simple models you have predictions which don't map onto the real world (for example, the non-vanishing heat capacity of an ideal gas at absolute zero). These things are "non-physical", but energy isn't.

 

Your view of energy might have been valid before 1905, when Einstein introduced special relativity theory and shown that E=mc2. Only after that particle physics was possible to emerge.
Energy is equivalent to mass, and therefore as physical as electrons, if not more so, even with your definition of physical

 

Nobody has even bothered to try to describe the "pure energy" given off by proton annihilation. Instead a simple question and incorrect declarative statement is met with childlike derision. Unfortunate, and certainly unprofessional. Seems like a problem to me.

As for an attempt at an answer:

First off, I don't think proton-proton collisions result in total conversion to pure energy. Please correct me (politely, please) if I am wrong.

Proton - antiproton annihilation likewise is not that simple. Read the wikipedia article on Annihilation.

To the extent that "pure energy" is given off by any particle collision, it is in the form of photons. A photon is a "packet" of energy --- pure energy. The energy in a photon is tied to its wavelength. It has a definite physical basis. For that you should read more about photons, and even more about particles (like, what are particles, anyway).

 

sorry Drakkith --- your answer was good, and I always appreciate your effort to clarify. Obviously the poster did also.