As we begin our investigations, the first thing we must discover is, what is everything made of? This first lesson focuses on the basic building blocks of the universe. Those basic building blocks are matter, solid stuff, and energy such as heat, light, microwaves, x-rays, etc. So this is where we begin our knowledge journey.
The equation of Albert Einstein
We have seen his photo countless times. The while hair, the bushy mustache, the ever present tobacco pipe, are all familiar to us. So is his famous equation E = mc2. That is probably the most famous mathematical equation in all of history. We see it inscribed on T-shirts, written into textbooks, and taught in physics classrooms the world over. Although many have seen it, how many people know what it really means?
E = mc2 can be stated in English as " Energy is equal to mass times the velocity of light squared," but even that is hard for mere mortals to understand.
What does that mean? It means, fundamentally, that all matter can be converted to energy. We do this when we turned gasoline into automobile motion, for example. We put the gas in the automobile engines, light it on fire, and created explosion which drives of piston, in the engine, down which rotates a crankshaft which turns the wheels which moves the car forward. Fundamentally, this is the conversion of matter (gasoline) to energy (motion).
Unfortunately, we are pretty bad at converting matter to energy. We get heat, light, smoke, and all sort of byproducts from our relatively inefficient conversion. We didn't waste products, exhaust. If we were a little bit smarter, we could convert the gasoline to pure energy, with nothing left over. Theoretically, we could completely convert the gasoline to energy, forward motion, with no loss through friction, tailpipe exhaust, etc. if we mere humans could be that efficient, and automobile could probably travel hundred miles on a teaspoon of gasoline. That is many orders of magnitude more efficient than we are today!
When we burn things, we convert a fraction of the matter to energy. Nuclear fission, the first A-bombs or an example of this, took a handful of radioactive material and turned it into any quibble and explosion of many thousands of tons of TNT (measured in kilotons). When we got smarter, instead of splitting the atom as we did in nuclear fission, we used a different process. We did not split the atom, but rather compacted them together, and that process is called nuclear fusion, whose reaction, from the same level of fuel, was measured in megatons, millions of tons not kilotons, thousands of times.
We even learned to control, to harness, the fission reaction, and it currently powers such devices as electric power plants, submarines and aircraft carriers. However the machinery to do so is very large and cumbersome, but that's okay, because the reaction produces so much energy. It is also important to note that in all the reactors that we use today, the fission reaction produces heat energy which is used to convert water to steam, the rapid expansion of which actually powers the submariners ship. We still don't directly use fission, but rather a secondary byproduct.
What we have not figured out how to do is harness the power of nuclear fusion, which would produce thousands of times the energy of nuclear fission. Perhaps some day we will.
But something we have no idea how to do, is directly convert a piece of matter -- a rock, water, gasoline, anything -- from its current form (matter) into pure energy. This feat, described by Einstein's equation, is spectacular. I'm not sure that we even have the materials to convert such a release of energy to a mechanical form.
Converting energy to matter.
This has only been accomplished in the domains of science-fiction, scientific experiments and mathematical equations. It is theoretically possible, but not practical at today's level of science. but, as Tony Robbins, noted motivational speaker, one said, "anything we believe, we can achieve."
Water, ice and steam.
What this really tells us is that what we perceive as matter -- the rocks, water, birds, people, our clothes, etc. -- and what we consider energy -- turning a car's wheels, flexing our muscles, etc. -- are fundamentally the same thing. For example, I could have liquid water. I can drink it. At colder temperatures, I can convert that what would water to ice. If I keep it up, I turn it into steam, I guess. So one thing, water, can have three forms -- solid, liquid, and gas. There is a fourth thing that water could be, if we know how. Water could turn into pure energy. And the amount of energy in a glass of water would be astronomical.
What are matter and energy?
Matter is made up of things we call atoms. At one time, it was thought that the atom was the smallest unit of matter. We have since learned that atoms are composed of other particles, protons, neutrons, and electrons. And, even those, the physicists tell us, can be broken down into ever smaller components, and ultimately into things called quarks, which at present are purely theoretical.
Energy is composed of the things that we call photons. Photons, as far as we know, are the smallest unit of energy that can exist. The photons travel at the speed of light, which is approximately 186,000 miles per second (abbreviated mi./s).
If you were to completely smashed an atom, the atom would transform into nothing but pure photons. All of the parts of the atom would be completely annihilated, with only photons streaming away from the explosion at 186,000 mi./s. No smoke, no fire, just pure energy. As a civilization, we are not quite capable of this yet.
Note 1. Recent scientific experimentation has identified clear or translucent substances that appear to slow photons down. So it is possible that the universal speed limit might very. However, we are not sure what is really happening, and I would like to stress that point. It is possible that these substances merely bounce photons around until they come out the other side, much as a laser does.
Note 2. it may seem rather strange, but brilliant Physicist and Lucasian Professor of Physics at Cambridge University, Stephen Hawking, has ascertained that a pair of photons springs into existence out of nothingness at the event horizon of a black hole caused by the collapse of a giant star. Will wonders never cease?
Key points.
1. All the universe, as far as we can tell, is composed of two things: matter and energy.
2. Matter can be converted to energy and energy to matter, but, either the matter or energy always exist. Neither can be created from nothing, and neither can be destroyed, turned into nothingness.
3. All matter is composed of atoms which are made up of the electrons and protons, plus some other objects, and they themselves can be broken down further.
4. All energy is composed of photons. Photons vibrating at different speeds give us different types of energy such as light, heat, x-rays, microwaves, gamma rays, etc. There appears to be no bigger or smaller unit of energy than the photons.
5. We have figured out how to convert matter to energy, although less than efficiently. We have not yet learned how to create matter from energy. That, alas, is still a mystery.
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https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZ1nweotz-8MZGNiNHB6YzhfMjQ4YnZmcm5jMg&hl=en
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