What happens in a particle accelerator?

[Dale]

Energy is not matter, it governs how matter behaves. It doesn't take up space. Is this accurate?

Yes, essentially.

 

[Crazymechanic]

looks like the foggy skies have cleared in this thread after all. :)
So you now think you understood the answer to your question Jd0g33 ?

 

[jaydnul]

looks like the foggy skies have cleared in this thread after all. :)
So you now think you understood the answer to your question Jd0g33 ?

Ya I do. I also realize the importance of proper terminology haha. This thread could have ended in one post if I used the correct words to represent my thoughts. But still, what's the deal with all the animosity around here?

 

[Dale]

But still, what's the deal with all the animosity around here?

The problem was this statement:

Energy is just an arbitrary mathematical quantity.

That is a statement that is strongly associated with all sorts of unpleasant crackpots that people here have argued with in the past. When you said that it made anyone who has been around a while extremely suspicious of your motives.

 

[Crazymechanic]

Just like what Dale just said , no matter how intellectual , open minded or objective some people are they still are just people and we all even if only in our thoughts still judge others by how we perceive them and since we cannot read others thoughts directly then sometimes we make these misunderstandings , so basically from my own experience with topics , and the ones who know me know this very well , explaining yourself as good and accurate as you possible can is actually key to getting something out of an internet forums like this.

 

[dipole]

The best way to view energy is to associate it with something that a particle or field carries around with it. You'd never think to talk about "pure momentum" without referencing a particle or a field, and the same is true for energy. Energy is just a bit more abstract in some ways, because it's a scalar quantity rather than a vector, and we tend to think of vectors as living in some space which we map onto the real world, whereas we don't always think of scalars in that way.

But energy, momentum, and other invariants as describe above are things which get exchanged and shuffled around when particles interact with each other. However, the fact that these things are invariant, or conserved, is a reflection of the physical laws which govern those interactions.