That question has many answers, laziness and chronic allergy to exercise being some of them, but like all my posts, I'll look for the most unnecessarily complicated answer to solve it. So, let us begin.
Why is a cup of hot coffee heavier than a cup of cold coffee?
This would be a more appropriate question to the answer I will give you but, science has to be fun to be digestible, so, let's stay with my obesity for now.
We all know matter, and if not, then I present it to you: everything you see, touch and feel is matter, it is simply everything that occupies space and that also has mass. From the lady of Asian descent who always sees me with a weird face every time she gives me my sushi to Leo Messi's Ballon d'Or are made of stuff. Molecules, atoms, protons, etc. All that falls into the category of matter since it occupies space (volume) and has mass.
Let's clarify the difference between matter, mass, and weight. I just told you that what is matter so if you do not remember it, your priority may not be to read this post. The weight is simply the force (gravity) with which the earth attracts an object, so it's not that I'm fat, it's that the earth loves me more than she loves you, as simple as that.
The mass is a way of measuring the resistance of an object to be accelerated. This has to do with the famous formula:
E = mc ^ 2
And its cousin nobody knows: E ^ 2 ^ = [pc] ^ 2 + [m [c] ^ 2] ^ 2, this one is for moving objects
If an object has more mass, it needs more energy to be moved. But where does the mass comes from? We already know that the weight is the love of the earth feels for you and that matter is all that occupies space ...
When we ask these questions is when things get fun. And I mean fun if you're a masochist with a fetish for complicated things ... I guess in that case the mass is indeed fun.
Where does the mass come from?
The speed of light is 299,792,458 m / s. This is somewhat confusing because if we were to name it "massless particle velocity" it would clear up a lot of misunderstandings. Let's start this with a concept that does not sound complicated or extensive at all: Quantum field theory. Beautiful name, right?
Unless you are looking for a copy and paste for your thesis on quantum physics, this definition will be just fine: the elementary particles are only excitations in fields. For example, electrons are excitations in an electron field. These fields are literally everywhere, from where you are sitting to the farthest galaxy. When this field is excited, it "releases" an electron.
There are some errors in that explanation, how you define "elementary particles" (if a quark can never be on its own, how can it be elementary?) and a few others, but let's put those things under the carpet and focus on what matters, the reason for my obesity.
You may have heard about the Higgs Boson. It is the last elementary particle discovered and it was important enough to nickname it "The Particle of God". This discovery was so important mainly because just as electrons have their electron field, the Higgs boson has its own Higgs field, and it is the one that gives the property of the mass to the particles, hence the whole thing With God.
Now, there is something to point out:
- The Higgs field does not give its mass to all the particles, only the electrons. It makes them move slower when they interact with the said field. Hence the reason that the speed 299,792,458 m / s is the speed of the massless particles.
What the Higgs field does is simply to get in the way of the electron causing it to move slower than photons (light). All particles that have no mass travel at the "speed of light". This does not happen because they want to; A. The particles have no dreams or goals of their own and B. The particles with mass can move at any speed except light and those that have no mass can only move to the speed of light. You can see the mass as luggage, having no luggage you can move as fast as the laws of the universe allow you.
But I still didn't answer the questions that matter, where does the mass come from and where does this Oreos mattress under my shirt comes from?
Anti-matter
Do you remember the fields? each of the 17 elementary particles that exist, have their own field that produces them? You don't remember? Dude, I just said it, you really should go check your memory ... Oops, I'm digressing, let's get back to the point; these fields that produce matter out of "nothing" not only produce the particles we have been discussing but also their evil twins, their nemesis, their archenemies ... Anti-matter.
The mystery of anti-matter is not a simple one. We know that fields produce a "negative" version of the "original" particle. Let me explain. The electrons have positrons, the protons have anti-protons and the ... you already understood the point, just add an anti to the beginning.
So, every time an electron field "releases" an electron, it also releases a positron. The positron has exactly the same characteristics as its counterpart, it simply has a different charge. Electron = negative charge / Positron = positive, simple charge, right?
Anti-particles, anti-atoms, anti-molecules, anti-mountains, and anti-cats. A benign version of a normal cat. None of this is science fiction, this has been scientifically proven for decades ... But if all this is true, where are the non-asshole cats?
The answer is: I do not know.
This is one of the mysteries of science. About 13 billion years ago, when the universe began to expand (Big Bang) more matter was created than anti-matter and we just don't know why.
You may be thinking that this whole issue has nothing to do with the mass, that only a tangent in this post to lengthen it a bit. And let's say you're not completely wrong ... But if I touched this topic, I have a reason for it, called: Quantum Chromodynamics. Another beautiful concept that has nothing complicated and that is super easy to understand.
Third time's the charm.
Personally, I hate abstract art, I do not hate the artist but a hatred towards myself for not knowing the exact pattern of paint cans that I have to drop on a canvas to become a millionaire at the end of "art".
"Tf does that have to do with matter??" you may be asking. Well, that's the perfect example of a tangent, it will only touch on a single point the main theme of this post: * abstract properties *.
What we know as "charge" in an electron or a positron is what we call a abstract property. They could have called this property ugliness and it would work exactly the same. The electrons are -ugly and the positrons +ugly. It's just a way to differentiate the state. Quantum Chromodynamics has its own "charge", has its own abstract property that for some reason they decided to call "color" as if quantum physics wasn't hard enough.
This property called "color" is not really the color of a particle, the Gluons and the other elementary particles are smaller than the waves that form the colors, so I think they decided to call the property "color" just to put a name "cool" name to the theory.
I ramble again, I'm sorry.
So, recapitulating, there is a property called color that elementary particles have and we know that the atoms are composed of 3 main particles:
- Protons
- Neutrons
- Electrons.
To create matter, the particle must be "white" or no color (it's the same) and there are 2 ways to do that:
Choose a particle and its anti-particle, for example, the electron and its evil twin, the positron. Imagine that the electron is red and the positron is anti-red. When they join, they are said to be "white." Be careful, remember that these are not real colors, it's just a property they decided to call "color".
Combine 3 Quarks of different "colors". Blue, Red, and Green. This way does not include anti-matter, just 3 different types of Quarks. This also forms the color "white" or "colorless".
This is where the problem lies. If you ask a random person on the street about the Higgs Boson, the God Particle... they probably won't know about it at all. If you asked a stranger that read some science, he would tell you that it is the particle responsible for granting the property of "mass" to the matter and we already know that this is not completely true. The Higgs field only gives mass to the electrons, which, by the way, are roughly 0.03% of the mass of a human body. So, where is the other 99.97%?
if you've been reading carefully, you will remember that the atoms are composed of electrons, neutrons and protons. You may think that if the mass doesn't come from the electrons, it should come from these 2 other particles. And you would be wrong. Kind of.
This equation has a meaning that, to me, seems simply amazing and incredible. It says that energy is equivalent to mass. It is not that the mass can be "converted" to energy, no no no, it says mass is a form of energy. While there is a tiny part of your mass that comes from the Higgs field, the vast majority is energy.
Are you more energy than mass? Wait that's not right, it's the same thing; it's like saying that the number 4 has more "2 + 2" than "3 + 1".
So there it is. A cup of hot coffee is heavier than a cup of cold coffee because it has more energy. And I'm not fat, I only have large amounts of stored energy. And yes, I could have summarized much more this post but, hey, now you can be the cool guy from the party with your ted talks about quantum chromodynamics, protons and E = mc ^ 2!
...
Don't do that.
Sources: If particles are excitations what are their fields?, Everything is made of fields, Is a proton an elementary particle or not?, What is the difference between mass and matter?, Standard Model, Quantum chromodynamics, Quantum field theory, Mass, Matter, Playlist.
Images: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Possible future topics in no particular order:
- Radiation
- What happened in the First World War?
- Energy
- Big Freeze / Big Bounce / Big Rip
- Hubble Telescope
- Entropy, order, and complexity
- Dark Energy and Dark Matter
- Information Theory
- Heisenberg uncertainty principle
- Quantum tunneling.
- Religion