To my understanding, matter and energy are one and the same. Shifting from $E$ to $M$ in Einstein's famous equation requires only a large negative acceleration. If $M$ really is $E/c^2$, does that make matter the solid state of energy? I've read a lot about positron-electron collisions at high energies creating larger particles, and there is obvious matter conversion in fusion and fission reactions, but I can't find anything describing the physics of the conversion from energy to matter, rather than the interactions of what is already matter.
Specifically, the thing I'm getting hung up on is the reason energy would take on a solid state in the first place. If energy is represented by waves, how does it become particles? If gravity is determined by mass, and mass is nothing more than static energy, does that make gravity a static-electromagnetic force?
Answer
Energy and matter are not the same. Matter is a type of thing, whereas energy is a property of a thing, like velocity or volume. So your premise is flawed. In particular:
- there's no such thing as "a solid state of energy" - hopefully it makes sense that a property of something does not have states
- energy is not represented by waves, though it is a property of a wave. It's also a property of a particle (which, in quantum field theory, is really just a tightly bunched wave).
Note that mass can be converted to energy, because mass actually is energy. It is one of various types of energy: kinetic energy, potential energy, mass energy, and so on. Different types of energy get converted into each other all the time.
I'd suggest looking at several of the questions under the "Related" heading at the right for more information about this. (I actually thought this had been asked here before, but I didn't find an exact duplicate.)
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