(August 6, 2021 at 5:08 am)vulcanlogician Wrote: Solid, liquid, gas, and plasma are the states of MATTER.
It's still matter regardless of which state it is in.
What I think is tripping you up, Winter, is that plasma states can break down the atomic structure. Hydrogen plasma is almost like a soup of free electrons and protons. But it is still (by definition) matter.
What prevents me from agreeing that plasma is actually "matter" is that it is not a long lasting state of matter, look here:
https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews...matter.cfm
Quote:But what about plasma? It’s the most abundant state of matter in the universe, but plasma can’t exist for long under normal terrestrial conditions.
Essentially that's what I meant by "transitional" state: Plasma is a temporary state that superheated matter goes through: that's not "matter" -even if science said so today- but rather a "transitional state into something we didn't yet discover".
The question I would ask myself is this: what happens to matter after turning to plasma? what's the next state?
