Primordial Groove

Is everything in the universe including life a product of energy conversions?

I was thinking of the universe, more specifically moments after the Big Bang to primordial Earth when life as we know it begins.
If everything in the universe is energy in one form or another, it seems to me that life is nothing more than converted energy. Scientists just don't have the 'recipe' or, the types of energy used and in what amounts with the proper conversions to 'create' life.

Does this make sense or am I on a one way ticket to the mental ward?

fando

You're probably getting a ticket. Can you elaborate what you think energy is?

Primordial Groove

I KNEW IT!!

I looked up the definition of energy in the dictionary. This is not how I was defining it, and perhaps a better definition is needed.

Ok, a brief glimpse inside my head: :banghead:
Now, other than that, let's go back to 2 seconds after the big bang. That energy is what I was using to define the word energy.

Wasn't it sometime after the big bang that the energy started converting to hydrogen and the other elements?

Primordial Groove

So, I did a search on Universal Energy and I get alot of voo doo type sites. This does not help to clearly define what I am attempting to ask.

Let me ask this: what does all matter in the universe have in common?

Jimmy Higgins

E^2 = (mc^2)^2 + p^2c^2

All matter is comprised of energy as shown above in the complete equation where the m accounts for objects with mass, and p for massless objects that most certainly have energy.

DNAunion

DNAunion: Well, physics isn't exactly my strong point, but....

The P stands for momentum: a massless object doesn't have a momentum (in classical physics, p = mv, so if m = 0, then p = 0 also; and I think in relativity it's the same basic equation but with the gamma factor thrown in: p = [gamma]mv). For objects with no momentum, the term containing the P drops out and after taking the square root of both sides, the equation simplies to the rest energy equation E=mc^2 we have all come to know and love.

Friar Bellows

Not true. Photons are massless and have momentum of E/c, which you can see from the equation:

E^2 = m^2c^4 + p^2c^2

if m = 0, then:

E^2 = p^2c^2

or:

p = E/c

Friar Bellows

Oh yeah, E stands for energy, p stands for momentum, m for invariant or "rest" mass, and c is the speed of light. And x^2 means that x is being squared. Just in case those symbols were meaningless to you.

Jesse

DNAunion:
a massless object doesn't have a momentum (in classical physics, p = mv, so if m = 0, then p = 0 also; and I think in relativity it's the same basic equation but with the gamma factor thrown in: p = [gamma]mv).

Right, but since gamma goes to infinity as you approach light speed, the momentum of a massless object traveling at light speed cannot be calculated in relativity; as it turns out, particles travelling at light speed have zero rest mass but nonzero momentum. For example, the momentum of a photon is p=hf/c, or equivalently p=h/l, where h=Planck's constant=6.6*10^-34 J-s, and f=frequency and l=wavelength. You can derive this based on the fact that E=hf for a particle in quantum mechanics (this is the Planck equation), and if the rest mass of an object is 0 then we know E=pc from relativity.

edit: As Friar Bellows points out, it's also true that if you already know the energy of a photon you can calculate its momentum using p=E/c, but I guess I was assuming you were trying to find the momentum so you could solve for the energy. My statement "the momentum of a massless object traveling at light speed cannot be calculated in relativity" was not quite correct, although it's true that the equation p=[gamma]mv will not tell you anything by itself, if all you know is that the rest mass is 0 and that the velocity is c.