Light and Matter (Origins)

by David Turell , Wednesday, May 21, 2014, 05:46 (3837 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: Thank you. What I'm trying to get my head round is the idea that "pure light", energy and matter are "interchangeable". -Basically everything is energy. Matter is a form of energy. Energy is really all there is. After the Big Bang (it was thought to be cool) and inflation starting during the first 10^-43 seconds and instantaneously expanding, then it heated to enormous temperatures and caused a "plasma" of just energy, no particles. At 300+ K years it cooled enough for particles of energy to appear. They then formed the early lightest elements. The first gases were hydrogen, helium and a little lithium as the original elements. Gradually the stars, as furnaces, produced the heavier elements, which could then form molecules, and matter beyond just burning stars could appear and eventually create what we have as a universe. Yes, interchangeable, and just forms of the same thing. E=mc^2 says it all.