# What is the origin of matter?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-matter/157056
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 24, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-matter/157056 "2003-02-24T01:54:52Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CasperQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CasperQ)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-matter/157056/1 "2003-02-24T01:54:52Z")
No clever wit or scintillating repartee - just the question…
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2003, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-matter/157056/2 "2003-02-24T01:56:05Z")
Matter is what happens when energy cools down enough to clump.
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### Author:  [@CasperQ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CasperQ)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2003, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-matter/157056/3 "2003-02-24T02:12:58Z")
Details, please? All matter is clumped energy? And the origin of energy, then?
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-matter/157056/4 "2003-02-24T02:20:52Z")
Yes, “matter” is just another state of energy.
The answer to the origin of energy has to be “I don’t know” at this time.
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### Author:  [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2003, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-matter/157056/5 "2003-02-24T02:22:40Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by CasperQ \*
> \*\*No clever wit or scintillating repartee - just the question… \*\*
I’d say the big bang created matter. Or perhaps it released matter. One of the two I believe…
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2003, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-matter/157056/6 "2003-02-24T02:23:27Z")
And the “details” are complicated enough to fill several physics courses. People much better versed in math than me tell me it works.
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### Author:  [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2003, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-matter/157056/7 "2003-02-24T02:25:35Z")
Energy was created at the time of the big bang. Asking what the origin of energy is, is the same as asking what came before the big bang. This has no answer. All the things we use to interact with the universe (gravity, matter, temp., velocity, every thing in fact that we call the universe) was created then. There is not way to measure anything before then because it was fundimentally different.
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### Author:  [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2003, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-origin-of-matter/157056/8 "2003-02-24T06:17:07Z")
[ul];j [sup] **The abyss** [/sup][/ul]