What is the difference between matter and energy?

What is the difference between matter and energy?

• A. Energy has mass and occupies space.
• B. Matter has mass and occupies space; energy is the ability to do work or cause change and does not have mass.
• C. Matter and energy both have mass.
• D. Energy is the material that occupies space.

Answer: (B)

Matter has mass and takes up space, so you can weigh it and measure its volume. Energy is the ability to do work or cause change, but it isn’t a material substance that occupies space. You can see energy in action as heat, light, motion, or the ability of a compressed spring to do work; these are different forms of energy, not things you can hold. In everyday contexts, energy doesn’t have mass, though in physics there is a relation between mass and energy at very high speeds, summarized by E=mc^2. So the main distinction is that matter is the stuff with mass and volume, while energy is the capacity to cause change or perform work.

Matter has mass and takes up space, so you can weigh it and measure its volume. Energy is the ability to do work or cause change, but it isn’t a material substance that occupies space. You can see energy in action as heat, light, motion, or the ability of a compressed spring to do work; these are different forms of energy, not things you can hold. In everyday contexts, energy doesn’t have mass, though in physics there is a relation between mass and energy at very high speeds, summarized by E=mc^2. So the main distinction is that matter is the stuff with mass and volume, while energy is the capacity to cause change or perform work.