Matter

[OpenMind5]

Ok, I am not really a physics major or anything, I know more than most of my friends though, (I'm more of a Philosophy person) But I offer a question to everyone.

 

I remeber that there is a law in science that say atoms cannot be created or destroyed. We also know that atoms are the building block of all life. And we ALSO know that the population of the earth has increased quite a bit! There are alot more people living now then there was back then. Well...where did all these atoms come from??? Were they always there? It doesn't seem logical to come from space...thats growing, not shinking from us using up its atoms... *sigh* I love science...LOL

 

Any ideas? Questions? Comments? "Post, away!!!"

 

High regards,

OP5

[Tormod]

Actually,

 

1) Atoms can be made and destroyed - in fact, they are continually made and destroyed (even the ones in your body). Every time a particle interacts with another, both are destroyed and remade and other particles are created as a resutl of the interaction. The net charge, spin, color etc is still conserved, however.

 

2) Atoms are the building blocks of everything. We don't call them the building blocks of life, however. That would be more advanced molecules like RNA and proteins.

 

3) The amount of atoms that make up people are not a drop in the ocean as far as the universe is concerned. Every second the Sun throws tons of matter into space, for example. The matter we are made of is readily available in our biosphere. We're not "using up atoms" in the universe.

[pgrmdave]

The atoms in our bodies come from what we put into it, food and drink. The things that we eat get it from what they eat, until it gets down to plants, which get thier material from the soil, which is decayed biomatter.

[lindagarrette]

All matter is composed of energy fields in empty space. When you hit the deck, it isn't colliding atome that make a noise, it's impacting electromagnetic forces, right?

[infamous]

Absolutely Linda, competing energy fields, localized geometric energy matrixes. Alternately refered to as matter.

[maddog]

All matter is composed of energy fields in empty space. When you hit the deck, it isn't colliding atome that make a noise, it's impacting electromagnetic forces, right?

 

Quite rightly. :) At the quantum level no actual contact is made between macroscopic objects.

 

For Openmind, Tormod's description was acurate though I don't think went far enough. The

fallacy/confusion you have is over this creating/destroying thawng. The correct notion is that

all "Total" energy at ALL times conserved. No energy is created nor destroyed. However it

(energy) is continually converted to particles and back again as Tormod said.

 

However, this turns out to not be exactly accurate either as three more points can happen to

throw the proverbial monkey wrench. There are the following:

 

1. Vacuum fluctuations: In the absense of anything (vacuum of space) due to Heisneberg's

uncertaincy principle - particles/energy can aparently apear to be created from nothing.

 

2. Virtual particles: In QED, virtual particles can apear to borrow energy from the past or

future to balance a Feynman diagram.

 

3. Hawking Radiation: Near the surface of a Black Hole, annilalation pairs where one falls in

and the other escapes can create a leakage of energy/mass from the Black Hole.

 

All this is consistent with either GR or QT and the Standard Model. :)

 

Maddog

[infamous]

Hey maddog; You just answered a question for me that I submitted on another thread. The question was, where do virtual particles get their energy. It seems that the answer could be, as you state, either from the future or the past. This brings up another question that I would like to address. If the energy for virtual partile formation comes form the future for example, then maybe this mutual annihilation sends the energy back to the future where it was procured? And the next question, is this transfer of energy from this time continum to another limited to only the quantum scale. I presume that there is no evidence for such transfer of energies or matter from current expermental data, but is it at least plausible by concept.

[OpenMind5]

aaah! TIME! ENERGY! LOL :)

 

It sounds like you (infamous) are making a refernece to time as being a circle... Or maybe all of this is going over my head..LOL :) O well...Maybe somone can break it down for me and do a lil dance while their at it.

 

 

Tormod...back to your respones to my opening...atoms can be made and destroyed? WHat is this process(s)? ALWAYS WILLING TO LEARN! AND ALSO... you said

 

"3) The amount of atoms that make up people are not a drop in the ocean as far as the universe is concerned. Every second the Sun throws tons of matter into space, for example. The matter we are made of is readily available in our biosphere. We're not "using up atoms" in the universe."

 

Is the number of atoms increasing in our universe? Or decreasing? Or at eqalibrium?

 

With High Regards and Curious Thoughts;

OP5

[Tim_Lou]

"virtual particles can apear to borrow energy"?

 

dont the particle and the anti-particle add up to zero energy? so, how is it borrowing?

[Aki]

Only the charge of particle and anti-particle add up to zero. When they meet, they annihilate, releasing energy, so they can't add up to zero energy.

[maddog]

Aki,

 

Let me clarify... Anything borrowed must be returned. I am sorry simplifying it this way.

Also to note that "borrowing" must occur within the Heisenberg uncertainty for time

equation. I am only speaking in terms of Virtual particles. This is not a violation of QED.

 

====

 

On another point, I was talking with a colleague today on String Theory and we got on the

subject of "Ghosts". We were speculating why a physicist wants to get rid any theory

having them (why going to 10 from 26 dimensions <== from another thread). Anyway,

I made my conjecture to him that would an interaction of a Virtual particle with any kind

of Tachyon like particle as long as the rest of all energies and quantum numbers balance

cause any harm to causality. I want to know more about Ghosts and why there are nasty.

 

Maddog