If matter cannot be created nor destroyed (first law of thermodynamics), where did matter come from?

Answer 1

In the beginning of universe, all matter was created by God. At that point He gave us the ability to create life from the cellular structure He provided at that time, i.e., earth, vegetation, animals, human beings, etc. We, humans, cannot create matter. There must be an original source to create anything from.

Answer 2

According to Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principal matter and energy CAN be created and destroyed as long as it is for an indetectable time. This is a FACT.

Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principal was only written for the four dimentions of perceivable spacetime. There is no reason why, when extended to the 11 dimentions of string theory, this amount of time can be much longer.

Remember, also, that according to string theory the energy and matter in this universe have their origins from a neighboring brane. There is no mystery here.

To Sofarsogood, I appreciate the insult. As it happens, I know rather a lot about string theory and I know what you mean. It can be frustrating when people 'invoke' string theory without any knowledge of what it actually is. As I said, I know rather a lot about it. Also, matter and energy being related by E=mc^2 has no effect on whether the energy/matter can be created or destroyed. You are quite write, that is how energy and MASS is related, but the spontaneous creation of energy (and hence matter) must be possible. Here are some proofs.

1) Alpha decay. According to classical physics, alpha decay is impossible because the energy needed for a helium nucleus (the most stable of all nucleii) to escape a heavier nucleus would be greater than the kinetic energy the alpha particle posessed. Despite this, we can detect alpha radiation. Why? This is due to quantum tunnelling. Quantum tunnelling is only possible due to quantum field theory, which states that bosons (like the photon) are constantly being created and destroyed at random and that these can 'lend' some energy to a system. In this way, the energy of the alpha particle is momentarily increased so that it can escape. Then the energy is returned to the quantum field. The only constraint is that the must obey Heisenburg's uncertainty principal (as I said earlier).

2) The LED. Yes, the humble LED, like the indicator lamp in your computer monitor, is evidence for quantum tunnelling. The light is emitted due to the recombination of electrons and holes. The electrons 'jump' over a volume in the semiconductor junction known as the 'forbidden region'. They can only do this by borrowing energy from the quantum field. Again, proving the creation of energy FROM NOTHING (remember, the quantum field is virtual).

Now, Heisenburg's uncertaintly principal is defined as:

dE dt <= constant.

This means that as long as the change in energy occurs for a sufficiently short time this is possible.

Now, the important thing to note is that the uncertainty principal is ONLY defined for four dimentions (the components of dE being in the three cartesian dimentions).

So, in 11 dimentions the uncertainty principal would be quite different. In fact, there is no reason why the constant (involving hbar) would not allow for a much greater value of dT.

Now this is the really important bit, research is CURRENTLY ongoing about this. This is CUTTING EDGE WORK. If you go to the ISI web of science and search for this topic you will see papers being produced VERY recently.

And this is the most important thing of all, I KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. I would really appreciate you not deforming my character by doubting my knowledge. Unlike many of the peons on here I do not answer a question unless I feel I know the answer. That is why I have 41% best answer.

Answer 3

Matter cannot be created nor destroyed.

Similarly energy cannot be created or destroyed.

Now we know matter and energy put together cannot be created nor destroyed.

There exists matter and energy. It is proved.

Still we are studying the universe.

Where from matter came?

There can be only two ways. Either the matter must have come from energy or energy might have come from matter.

I think that theories like big bang say that matter has come from energy.

Any other answer apart from these does not belong to the domain of science.

It can give only consolation to the mind of the person who asked the question and not the science.

Answer 4

Don't you love people who invoke string theory without the slightest understanding of what it is, or that it is no more than an attractive theory that *may* turn out to apply to our universe? (or may not)

Matter can be created or destroyed, in fact: e = mc^2. The sum of matter and energy cannot be destroyed. It was all created in the Big Bang. *IF* string theory is correct then *one current thought* is it came from a collision between branes. Other thoughts are it was a random quantum fluctuation, or energy stored from a previous "big crunch". The Inflationary theory says that all the energy came from the inflationary phase, which extracts energy from gravity.

I just finished reading Greene's second book, The Fabric of the Cosmos. You might want to consider reading that if you want better understanding. (warning: the book is accessible, but it takes a lot of thought as you read it)

Answer 5

I agree. Not everyone believes that the energy in our bodies makes up who we are though. I consider both logical. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, and ghosts just so happen to be said to be made of electromagnetic energy. On the other hand, if you take a computer and destroy it, all the memory and everything is gone, and perhaps it's the same for the brains of living things.

Answer 6

these simple theories only hold for earth, more complex equations and laws are needed to understand the galaxy, the first matter came from an intense point of energy. Antimatter was created as well.

Answer 7

For the vast majority of things that happen on earth, the first law holds. When you get into the realms of nuclear reactions, then it dosn't.