Wheel of Topics #21

Among the strange phenomenon of nature, some benefit of an higher level of visibility(there are more people that know about their existance). It is true about antimatter. It's existence is known mostly because of its use in a detective novel(Angels and Demons). But what do you know about it?

It is the the opposite of matter. On a the point of energy, it's true. Anti-electron(positron) possess a charge that is the exact opposite of the electron. Same goes for the antiproton when compared to proton.

It react violently to matter. Completely true. When in contact with matter, antimatter will annihilate and destroy the same amount of matter. One atom of antihydrogen(positron and antiproton) will destroy only one atom of hydrogen. The annihilation will produce high energy photon, gamma ray and a few other byproduct.

It's a relatively new discovery. Wrong. The theory of antimatter exist since 1928, and the existance of positron was confirmed in 1932. Antiproton was confirmed in '55, and antineutron in '56.

The CERN can produce mass quantity of it. Yes and no, depending on the point of view. If they use their technology to produce only antiproton, they can produce 10^7(10 millions) of them per minute. It the highest level of production in the world. At that rythm, if they can totaly contain and convert them into antihydrogen, it would take 100 billions years to create a whole gram of anti hydrogen.

It could become one of the most economic source of energy of history. Right now, its not even in the dream of greatest scientist. The scientist of the CERN say that it is THE MOST VALUABLE material on earth. The amount of resources needed to produce the small amount they can do give antihydrogen an approximate price between 25 billions to 62,5 trillions dollars per gram. It will need lots research before it can be considered.

It can be used as a powerful fuel or explosive. In theory, yes. If 1 Kg of antimatter was detonated(simple contact with matter is enough), it would create an explosion of 43 megatons(equivalent of 43 000 000 ton of TNT). More energy per kilo than anything presently known. If used in a controled environnement, it could be a very good fuel.

I hope it was interesting and educational.

Grim the pirate

They managed to actually magnetically suspend some the other week, so that's another major step towards blowing up the Vatican ...