Particles are Visible!

[Willem F Esterhuyse]

I see particles as little points of light going about O(3cm) before annihilating. This can be seen by looking at the blue sky and focusing about 100mm from the eyes.

I would be vindicated if calculation showed a distance (stable time) of O(3cm) for general particles.

[swansont]

Is this a question about vision, or about physics?

[Willem F Esterhuyse]

About physics since you can calculate the average distance a (general) particle travels.

[Genady]

4 minutes ago, Willem F Esterhuyse said:

About physics since you can calculate the average distance a (general) particle travels.

The average distance a (general) particle travels, about 14 billion light years.

[swansont]

I can assure you that particles can go more than 3 cm before annihilating, and looking at a blue sky is not the best way of detecting particles.

[Sensei]

38 minutes ago, Willem F Esterhuyse said:

Particles are Visible!

Old CRT television (century age technology) use a beam of electrons that is emitted from an electron gun toward a fluorescent screen. When the electrons hit the screen, they are decelerated and photons are emitted, which can be seen as an image on the screen.

When photons hit atoms in your eye, the atoms are excited and converted into electrical impulses.

[joigus]

46 minutes ago, Willem F Esterhuyse said:

I see particles as little points of light going about O(3cm) before annihilating. This can be seen by looking at the blue sky and focusing about 100mm from the eyes.

I would be vindicated if calculation showed a distance (stable time) of O(3cm) for general particles.

Most particles do not decay --ever--, and hardly do they annihilate. Electrons last forever, until they stumble upon a positron. Then both annihilate --each other.

[Genady]

33 minutes ago, Genady said:

The average distance a (general) particle travels, about 14 billion light years.

Correction: it is rather about 45 billion light years.

[Sensei]

24 minutes ago, joigus said:

Most particles do not decay --ever--, and hardly do they annihilate.

The annihilation of positrons with electrons is an important source of energy emitted by the Sun. ~ 7.8% of the all emitted by the Sun, at the moment.

More than ordinary Hydrogen-1 fusion (0.42 MeV per reaction, in which part (half) of energy is took away by neutrino).

https://www.scienceforums.net/topic/85656-solar-fusion-neutrinos-and-age-of-solar-system/

24 minutes ago, joigus said:

Electrons last forever, until they stumble upon a positron. Then both annihilate --each other.

Electrons can be captured by the nucleus.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_capture

Eventually, even rarer, double electron capture:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_electron_capture

Electron and positron can be transformed into electron neutrino and antineutrino. Instead of the usual annihilation into gamma photons.

 

 

Edited December 10, 2022 by Sensei

[swansont]

2 hours ago, Sensei said:

Old CRT television (century age technology) use a beam of electrons that is emitted from an electron gun toward a fluorescent screen. When the electrons hit the screen, they are decelerated and photons are emitted, which can be seen as an image on the screen.

The light from the image is from the phosphor on the screen, not from bremsstrahlung 

2 hours ago, Sensei said:

The annihilation of positrons with electrons is an important source of energy emitted by the Sun. ~ 7.8% of the all emitted by the Sun, at the moment

Which does not contradict joigus’s statement that most particles don’t annihilate