As non "scientific" enquirers...(7 and 43 years!) we want to know if "Everything IS Energy"?

Question

I only did a year of genetics at University and that was 22 years ago!!!

I've been working in an inquiry primary curriculum since then...so...

My 7 year old son and I are working on proving (or disproving) the hypothesis that "everything we percieve is energy" vibrating at different frequencies.

Tonight, I caught him trying to see if he could make a magnetic chamber to charge (and test!) his crystal collection!!

I think it's time I got some expert input?!!
All insights welcome!

Answer 1

Way to go, dad.

Is everything energy? Not everything...ideas are not energy, faith is not energy, for example...but all mass/matter in our known universe is energy in a compact form and, of course, energy is energy. Mass and energy are related through the famous E = mc^2.

We all know mass converts into energy under specific conditions, like a nuclear power plant or atomic bomb. But, in the lab, we've also created mass from energy. In fact, when we do this, we create both matter and anti-matter; so antimatter is also compact energy.

And there is also string/M theory. [See source.] This untested theory posits infinitely thin vibrating strings of Planck length (about 10^-33 cm). How these strings appear in our 4 dimensional universe depends solely on the frequencies they are vibrating. All mass, like electrons, and all energy, like photons, is nothing more or less than strings vibrating. And there you are, all mass and energy is just vibrating strings.

Share that with your son; I think he will be proud you thought of it first.

Answer 2

This is not a scientific question. Rather an esoteric pseudo-philosophic one.

Maxwell - Light is related to electricity and magnetism

Einstein - E=mc squared shows that there is a relationship between mass and energy in that they are mutually convertible. Mass and energy are not two entirely separate things. c is the speed of light

To be able to connect these two equations would be as spectacular as linking gravity with with electromagnetic force. Also tongue-in-cheek referred to as the Theory of Everything or the grand unification theory.

Answer 3

According to Albert Einstein's 1905 paper 'On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies', energy and mass are connected by the expression E=mc^2 (^ means, here, to the power of). Thus, mass and energy are interchangeable as demonstrated in many particle accelerator experiments conducted at CERN and FERMI Lab etc. Einstein then published a paper titled 'The Foundation Of The General Theory of Relativity' in 1915. In this, his most famous work, Einstein stated that a gravitational field and accelerating motion are experimental 'strongly' equivalent. Since in an earlier work he had linked inertia and mass as equivalent, his General Theory of relativity linked mass, acceleration, inertia and gravity in what is known as a tensor field equation, thus: -

G = 8.pi.T

Where ‘G’ is the Einstein field tensor, that describes gravity and ‘T’ is the energy tensor that describes all of the energy - including gravities’ self-energy.

Hence, the answer to the first question - indeed everything in the universe including the universe itself is energy.

The second part of your question is vaguer! I assume that you have broached upon ‘superstring theory’. In this theory everything in the universe, including gravity, is seen to stem from tiny entities known as strings (about 10^-33m long?) each of these strings vibrates at a different harmonic and thus different energy. The harmonics of vibration of these strings determines what they are - whether they are quarks, gluons, gravitons, or magnetic monopoles. This is a complex theory understood fully (?) only by those who spend their time researching it!

If my answers have been too complex for a seven year old, I do apologise but it is fair to say that these topics are normally taught to under and post graduates.

Answer 4

E=MC^2 and the Atom bomb prove that matter and energy are two sides of the same coin.
It sounds to me like your son and yourself are trying to prove or disprove string theory.
I may have got that wrong though.

Answer 5

at an atomic level one could perceive that yes everything is energy . there is anti matter and a lot of funny stuff going on in space but here on earth i think we can say every thing is made up of energy,

Answer 6

I don't think you can say IS, literally. Everything is surely POTENTIAL energy?