Up for a Challenge? (Physics Question)

I look at it like the matter is the noun and energy is the verb. Energy acts within the matter.
No?

Matter is everything, except for energy, and some other things. lol

My husband sounds:

Matter and Energy are interchangeable....that is to say they are different phases of the same thing. So matter IS energy. Converting matter into energy is a fairly regular occurance, it is how nuclear reactors work and nuclear bombs. The famous equation E=MC^2 tells us exactly how much energy matter contains and it's A LOT.

It's complicated. But basically everything you can touch IS matter, technically photons are matter too since they have a tiny none zero rest mass--------> This is where he continues to talk and I phase out :)

I hope this helped...a little!

The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it... but the way those atoms are put together. -Carl Sagan

Matter is every THING. It's also stored energy.

Take a piece of wood. That's matter. Light it on fire. It becomes energy (heat and light and sound). Strap it to a bunch of other pieces of wood, make the tension really astronomical, and then let your catapult hurl rocks at your enemy. The wood captures and releases energy (movement and sound). Dip it in root tone, stick it in the ground, and it will absorb energy and transmute it, and live off the energy and grow (assuming it's a young stick and will grow roots). Say it's an old stick. Leave it laying around, and fungi will start eating it... changing it into energy for their own growth.

Matter is just energy that just got stuck in a semi-solid container for a little while. In a molecule, a chain of molecules, a cell... or rock... or the core of a star. Energy gets stuck somewhere, and then always always ALWAYS splits into two or more things when it leaves that somewhere.

Forms of Energy:
- Light
- Heat
- Sound
- Electrical
- Chemical
- Nuclear
- Potential (that catapult pulled back, or a molecule spinning)
- Actual/Kinetic (sprong!)

Energy is Movement
Matter is what gets moved
Matter is what MIGHT capture it for a time, or MIGHT block it, and make it change direction

The whole TRICK is capturing energy. It doesn't like to stay in one place

As a matter of fact, I don't think it CAN stay in one place.

Huh. Now there's a science experiment. Stillness.

"I may look like I'm not doing anything, but on a cellular level, I'm really quite busy."

Actually, come to think of it, that may well be how we split an atom. Make it stay still.

Scratch the idea of "stopping" energy.

Our bodies do it chemically... millions and millions of chemical reactions, bombs, starter sequences. Calcium is the fuse that lights the ATP, Potassium is the buck of water that puts it out. Mitochondria, oy, mitochondria. Without them (which were probably a bacterial infection we got a reeeeeeally long time ago), we wouldn't make enough energy to animate our bodies.

Wiring does it kinetically. Give electrons a place to flow. Connect the circut. Unconnect it. Connect. Unconnect.

No one knows (to the best of my knowledge) how molecules trap energy. We can split them (nuclear energy), but to the best of my knowledge we can't trap nuclear energy. Just release it.

Mass is the physical electrons/protons/neutrons in an atom. Any atom. If there are protons (and all atoms have at least one proton--check that periodic table, remember that from high school chemistry class?), there is mass. Now.. there are electrons that are attached to those proton/neutrons. And those atoms made up of all those protons/neutrons and electrons don't just hang out and sit there. They are moving. Always. Even in a solid like a piece of wood or a rock. They are moving very slowly, but they are moving. They are moving a little faster and with less strength between the bonds in a liquid. And even faster in a gas.
The movement is energy. And even when it appears to be a blob just sitting there like say, your kitchen table... it contains "potential energy".
Riley gave a great list of all the different forms of energy. It can be stored (potential energy--like a kid at the height of his swing on a swingset or a ball held in your hand) or kinetic (the actual downward motion as he swings or the ball dropping to the floor) or your kitchen table..just sitting there in your breakfast room. But there is conservation of energy. No energy is lost, it is just transferred. The more mass an object has, the more potential energy it has, even when it appears to just be sitting there, because of it's mass (protons/neutrons). Say your kitchen table standing there has a mass of 40kg (the mass of the protons/neutrons in all the atoms of wood, etc that make up the table). It has potential energy in that, if it were to tip over it all that mass would move (and hit the floor). When it is moving towards the floor, it has kinetic energy (the mass x the speed, I think) and when it is stopped by the floor, it again becomes potential energy or the energy is transferred to the floor--maybe the floor shudders/vibrates for instance, and those vibrations (waves of energy) transfer the energy outward to ____... and on it goes.
I probably just muddied the waters even more... lol.

Here is an example of how mass (solid stuff) converts to energy. Wood is mass and when burned becomes energy. The energy warms us. When coal burns the energy is made into electricity.

I use to confuse weight and mass in high school.
Your weight will change based on where you are (on earth vs on the moon) but your mass is always the same.

Matter may be defined as anything that occupies space, possesses mass, offers resistance and can be felt by one or more of our senses. It is a general term for the substance of which all physical objects consist. Typically, matter includes atoms and other particles which have mass, ie solids, liquid and gas. A common way of defining matter is anything that has mass and volume. Mass is the amount of matter in an object and volume is the amount of space occupied by an object. However, different fields (chemistry/physics) use the term in different and sometimes incompatible ways; there is no single agreed scientific meaning of the word "matter". So.. matter is pretty much everything.

As for energy, it is harder to explain, it's a force, it can be transferred and such... so here is a link that simplifies it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy

Think of matter like your children: Full of potential. :-) Then something happens, a little push, a spark of inspiration, and that potential translates into some amazing accomplishment, i.e. Matter converts to energy.

E(energy)=M(mass) x C(speed of light) ^2

ie the amount of energy that is in a unit of mass is HUGE!

You convert mass into energy - and you don't need very much mass to be converted to get a large amount of energy. For example, the sun: little bits of hydrogen are being converted into energy via nuclear fusion. The sun will be around for a L-O-N-G time, because so little mass is needed to create so much energy.

(you can thank my clever hubby)

ps- enjoy those cookies - what a great way to spend a Friday evening - have you checked out the TED lectures online? Those are pretty cool, too.

Mass is contained energy. :)