Does the question “What is energy made of?” make sense? Like, for example, when I was in high school, I had to use the word ‘unique’ in a sentence, and I said “This is very unique,” and I was told that was actually an incorrect use of the word.

So using that same idea, and knowing what you know about energy, is “What is energy made of?” a valid and ‘accurate’ question?

And if so, what is energy made of?

And if not, I’m curious anyway, could energy be classified as some sort of a form of matter?

• And if not, I’m curious anyway, could energy be classified as some sort of a form of matter?

E = mc²

JTQ said:

Does the question “What is energy made of?” make sense?

No

dv said:

JTQ said:

Does the question “What is energy made of?” make sense?

No

If you insert the correct values into the equation, and perform the maths operations it will give the “ correct” answer/s but it wont explain what the fuck you have done. or what it means

Broad has the South Africans at 31/4 …

I would say this

energy is not something per se but rather is something that does something to something else

a moving slug has energy

energy has given the slug movement

when the slug hits a block the energy of the slug is given to the block as well, heating up the block and slug

Happy birthday for yesterday, JTQ :) Hope you enjoyed your day with your son.

Kinetic energy (including thermal energy) is made of motion relative to some reference point.

Potential energy (including chemical energy) is made of displacement of material from an equilibrium point.

Matter energy is made of matter.

Electro-magnetic energy is made of electro-magnetism.

Have I missed any forms of energy?

energy is not zero kelvin

does that pass?

The Rev Dodgson said:

Kinetic energy (including thermal energy) is made of motion relative to some reference point.

Potential energy (including chemical energy) is made of displacement of material from an equilibrium point.

Matter energy is made of matter.

Electro-magnetic energy is made of electro-magnetism.

Have I missed any forms of energy?

Light and heat?

>Light and heat?

fairly much covered i’d reckon

Divine Angel said:

Happy birthday for yesterday, JTQ :) Hope you enjoyed your day with your son.

Thanks, had a lot of fun with him :)

Energy isn’t a thing per se, it’s a property of matter

diddly-squat said:

Energy isn’t a thing per se, it’s a property of matter

From an engineer’s perspective I’d agree.

But from a pretend theoretical physicist’s perspective I’d say that there is no clear dividing line between “things” and “properties”.

The Rev Dodgson said:

diddly-squat said:

Energy isn’t a thing per se, it’s a property of matter

From an engineer’s perspective I’d agree.

But from a pretend theoretical physicist’s perspective I’d say that there is no clear dividing line between “things” and “properties”.

:/

I’m not really sure where you are going with this but many (physical) things in physics have properties.

diddly-squat said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

diddly-squat said:

Energy isn’t a thing per se, it’s a property of matter

From an engineer’s perspective I’d agree.

But from a pretend theoretical physicist’s perspective I’d say that there is no clear dividing line between “things” and “properties”.

:/

I’m not really sure where you are going with this but many (physical) things in physics have properties.

Clive Palmer is losing some of his.

JTQ said:

Does the question “What is energy made of?” make sense? Like, for example, when I was in high school, I had to use the word ‘unique’ in a sentence, and I said “This is very unique,” and I was told that was actually an incorrect use of the word.

So using that same idea, and knowing what you know about energy, is “What is energy made of?” a valid and ‘accurate’ question?

And if so, what is energy made of?

And if not, I’m curious anyway, could energy be classified as some sort of a form of matter?

There are subtleties here, though you may not want to know about them. Some history. Newton started with kinetic energy. But that wasn’t conserved, so he created potential energy to get a conservation law. And ever since then, more people have found over and over again that energy as they knew it wasn’t conserved and so had to create a new form of energy to fill in the gap. So beyond kinetic and potential energy, they needed turbulent energy, then thermal energy, then … chemical binding energy … mass-energy, nuclear binding energy, … , dark energy. At any time in history when someone has thought that they understand all the different types of energy, a shortfall occurs requiring a new type of energy.

That said, energy plays an absolutely fundamental role in general relativity. Conservation of mass+energy is the basis for most GR calculations. Another fundamental part of GR is conservation of momentum.

I think I’ll skip talking about the role of energy in QR here.