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Pure energy is created when matter and anti-matter annihilate each other. But what is it exactly? Can pure energy be used or stored?
When matter and anti-matter annihilate, the products are usually gauge bosons (photon, W+/-, Z, gluons). All except the photon decay pretty quickly, so one would typically classify the photon as pure energy.
I thought energy was energy. Pure energy? as opposed to impure energy?
Maybe some examples of energy that isnt pure would help me understand where you are trying to take the topic..
Most laypeople don't understand that energy can take on many forms ...
Kinetic vs. potential (heat, momentum, gravity, magnetic)
All sorts of radiative energy (heat, light, decay, etc)
"dark" energy even
So basically there's many, many forms of "energy" and none of them are "pure." Unfortunately sci-fi has created this myth that there's something called "pure energy" that usually takes the form of some bright, shiny thing floating around. A scientist would classify that as some core giving off brilliant amounts of photon energy and potentially heat energy too, but there would have to be some core of matter giving off that energy.
And unfortunately most people cannot understand this so they just believe that there is such a thing as "pure energy."
So to answer your question, No, you cannot capture "pure energy" because "pure energy" doesn't exist.
We can TRANSFER energy to something, and do it all the time. We burn coal, use radioactive decay, and other means to turn water into steam, accelerate it through Venturi or other means, and make it spin a turbine, which rotates and creates electromagnetic flux energy by spinning a shaft which has electro or permanent magnets on it. This in turn creates the electricity we use every day. Other means are more direct, like using the kinetic energy of waterfalls or tides, or solar power which directly converts the photons from the sun to electricity through chemical processes.
As for storage, we're pretty much limited to chemical potential batteries.
Most laypeople don't understand that energy can take on many forms ...
Kinetic vs. potential (heat, momentum, gravity, magnetic)
All sorts of radiative energy (heat, light, decay, etc)
"dark" energy even
So basically there's many, many forms of "energy" and none of them are "pure." Unfortunately sci-fi has created this myth that there's something called "pure energy" that usually takes the form of some bright, shiny thing floating around. A scientist would classify that as some core giving off brilliant amounts of photon energy and potentially heat energy too, but there would have to be some core of matter giving off that energy.
And unfortunately most people cannot understand this so they just believe that there is such a thing as "pure energy."
So to answer your question, No, you cannot capture "pure energy" because "pure energy" doesn't exist.
We can TRANSFER energy to something, and do it all the time. We burn coal, use radioactive decay, and other means to turn water into steam, accelerate it through Venturi or other means, and make it spin a turbine, which rotates and creates electromagnetic flux energy by spinning a shaft which has electro or permanent magnets on it. This in turn creates the electricity we use every day. Other means are more direct, like using the kinetic energy of waterfalls or tides, or solar power which directly converts the photons from the sun to electricity through chemical processes.
As for storage, we're pretty much limited to chemical potential batteries.
I think by "pure energy" he means energy by itself as opposed to energy coupled with matter. And for that you've got the photon and the graviton and possibly dark energy if we ever figure out what that is. Otherwise that's a good description of energy.
Also, a small note, not all energy storage is chemical. A small but increasing amount is being stored in ultracapacitors as electrostatic energy. Also, most solar cells convert photons using semiconductor processes which are typically not considered chemical (as no chemical reaction takes place).
I think by "pure energy" he means energy by itself as opposed to energy coupled with matter. And for that you've got the photon and the graviton and possibly dark energy if we ever figure out what that is. Otherwise that's a good description of energy.
Also, a small note, not all energy storage is chemical. A small but increasing amount is being stored in ultracapacitors as electrostatic energy. Also, most solar cells convert photons using semiconductor processes which are typically not considered chemical (as no chemical reaction takes place).
An interesting corollary to your observation is that inside superconductors photons do indeed have nonzero rest mass, which implies that the answer to OP's answer is really "Yes, we can capture 'pure energy'" but as a result of the superconducting forces the photons slow and thus interact with the Higgs mechanism to obtain mass. I'm a newb when it comes to particle physics and quantum physics, so you'll have to bear with me for a bit ... .
What is interesting is that experimentally we've proven that photons can have mass, but it is extremely small ... on the order of 10^-17 eV/c^2.
So, if we infer the OP's 'pure energy' to be that of massless particles in nature (assuming that experimentally we can prove massless particles really DO exist and aren't just mathematical flukes that just happen to fit our universe), then theoretically the answer would be to choose which one we want. If you want a photon, the answer is simple: a solar cell or a simple piece of black clothing. Black absorbs most wavelengths so it absorbs the most energy. It's the reason why people tell you to wear light clothing in hot, sunny climates to reflect the sun away.
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