Science people, can you answer this question?
 

Punker Barbie's energy thread reminded me of this.... back in school, our science teacher taught us that all molecules in everything is in constant motion. Gases move further apart than solids... which move very little.

Well, my question was... what if they stop?

Let's say your computer desk... sitting right in front of you... what would happen if you could zap it with a ray or something and suddenly every single molecule in it would stop where it is.

What would happen to the desk??

My science teacher couldn't answer it.

Dont know!:1orglaugh

it would still be frozen

moelcules slow down as they reach ultimate zero..i cant hink it would be any different

not like they would suddenly open up and you could pass your hand through them

If molecules stop..they can no longer stay bonded..so I would say that your desk would dissapear

:thumbsup

Your reality of it would be altered. That is all.

Everything is just sensations upon your senses. What you are reading now are just molecules on a display screen in motion on your desk.

There is really nothing in life except atoms, molecules, electrons, etc.

All we are is dust in the wind as Fletch would say. :1orglaugh

that was my other thought..that the movement was what gives it substance

this is a great thread


im going to grab my physics books down...lol

Yup.

The desk would fall apart into atomic waste :)

Exactly what I thought... but then, the mass can't just cease to exist... so logically it would fall to the ground in a pile, but then... that would involve motion once again and what ever it becomes at that point, would mean the molecules must be in motion.... but, they can't be.

i think you should ask beaker

http://www.cozmo.dk/comics/beaker.gif

As far as I remember the slower the molecules move the harder the matter is.
So basically it would be solid. Dunno about how fragile it would be.. could be that it would just shatter to millions of pieces.. or disappear.. or turn into a duck and fly away.. fuck if I know.

:321GFY

things dont just disappear

granted there is a large amount of space between the molecules, but that is relative not like you could see the oepn space with your eye even if all motion was stopped.



it would become frozen, as i said before


final answer:thumbsup

but how could it hold it's shape and mass together without the friction of motion?

this is a difficult one to answer for sure....


The molecules "within" the desk (the solid) if they stop...this is known as Diffusin. It can not stay a solid .. the molecules in the air would still be moving ....


But the confusing part is .. are you stopping the travel of the electrons within the atom ??

This is giving me a headache.. I will get back to you !!!


:helpme

Absolute zero is when molecular motion stops. Im going with him on this. :thumbsup


There is NO OTHER answer. It would be frozen.

Hell if I know, lol :)

But I'd sell it on ebay :thumbsup

well


the theory of a black hole.. one theory that i have come up with .. is absolute vaccum. In the presence of absolute vaccum atoms can not bond therefore objects would split in to their smallest form...the atom which we can not see with our eyes

:2 cents:

Well, that's all well and good, but since absolute zero hasn't really been acheived yet... no one really knows what would happen to a substance when it hit that point.

That's what I want to know... what would happen to water if you froze it to absolute zero? Would it still just be ice? or... something else?

?????????????????????

In all materials, a point is eventually reached at which all oscillations are the slowest they can possibly be. The temperature which corresponds to this point is called absolute zero. Oscillations never come to a complete stop, even at absolute zero.

well motion is not what holds it together..it is the electric bonds between the moelcules and atoms etc.

carbon bonds hold the desk together, i dontknow why they would just break apart if stopped, the electrical force which pushes the system would still be there...i think it would just be frozen

http://chem.ufl.edu/~itl/4412_aa/ccbond.html

remember the good old days..ugh

by molecules you mean sub-atomic particles. Molecules by themselves don't really move it's the parts that do.

Meep Meep!

hahah

Before I read the thread, I would say it would fall into molecules on the floor, but of course that would mean they were still in motion.

Soo... it must be frozen, but in such a state that the molecules are no longer bound together. They simply exist in their one spot, which happens to be where they were frozen.

I don't think by the molecules falling they are actually exerting any energy. They are falling on the borrowed energy of gravity. In a zero gravity environment however, I suppose the desk would appear to be solid until you touched it. And then it would move because you transfered the energy of the motion of your hand to the dead molecules. Not bringing them to life perse but instead bumping them into each other causing a wave like effect.

...But then that's just a guess.

9 out of 10 times it would turn into a horse.

See, I never would have thought of that, but now that you mention it, that has to be it!

I saw it happen once