What's antimatter?

[Bruno da Silva]

And what can we do with it? What's it for?

Edited August 13, 2015 by Bruno da Silva

[Strange]

Antimatter means particles which have opposite properties to "normal" matter. For every particle, there is a corresponding antiparticle. For example, the anti-electron is the positron.

 

 

And what can we do with it?

 

Positrons are used in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans.

http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=pet

 

I can't think of any other practical applications at the moment. After all, we can only create small numbers of anti-particles.

[Bruno da Silva]

Antimatter means particles which have opposite properties to "normal" matter. For every particle, there is a corresponding antiparticle. For example, the anti-electron is the positron.

 

 

Positrons are used in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans.

http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=pet

 

I can't think of any other practical applications at the moment. After all, we can only create small numbers of anti-particles.

 

What can we do with a bunch of antimatter?

[Strange]

 

What can we do with a bunch of antimatter?

 

Run away.

[Bruno da Silva]

 

Run away.

 

Run away of what?

[Strange]

 

Run away of what?

 

Run away from the heat and radiation.

[Bruno da Silva]

 

Run away from the heat and radiation.

 

Sorry I have to ask this

 

How much antimatter would it take to kill all life on Earth?

[fiveworlds]

How much antimatter would it take to kill all life on Earth?

 

 

More than you or I will ever have our hands on in our lifetime.

[Strange]

 

Sorry I have to ask this

 

How much antimatter would it take to kill all life on Earth?

 

This was answered in your original thread. But you obviously couldn't be bothered to read it.

[Bruno da Silva]

 

This was answered in your original thread. But you obviously couldn't be bothered to read it.

 

Where? I can't find it.

[Strange]

 

Where? I can't find it.

 

The second reply.

[Strange]

You troll.

 

Form the linked article, the first method is:

 

1. Annihilated by an equivalent quantity of antimatter

You will need: An entire planet Earth made from antimatter

...

Feasibility rating: 2/10.

 

So I assume you didn't bother to read it.

[Bruno da Silva]

You troll.

 

The second reply.

 

Serious, where is it?

[Bruno da Silva]

 

Form the linked article, the first method is:

 

So I assume you didn't bother to read it.

 

Oh, sorry. I thought it was the "Step on a butterfly" one.

 

I've already read that site. I didn't remember it.

[ajb]

Antimatter is just like ordinary matter, the antiparticle has the same mass as its particle partner, but some of the quantum numbers are flipped; for example charge, lepton number and spin.

 

 

And what can we do with it?

There are, as already mentioned medical uses of antimatter.

 

 

What's it for?

I am not quite sure what you mean by this question. Are you looking for some explanation of why nature needs antimatter?

 

The best explanation is that, following the work of Dirac, we know that when you consider relativistic quantum theory then you necessarily get a 'mirror copy' of all the particles that you first try to model. Basically, relativity + quantum demands these antiparticles.