what's antimatter?

Question

is it dangerous?

Answer 1

It's the same as normal matter but with the opposite charge and spin to normal matter (eg antielectrons, knowns as positrons, have a positive charge and antiquarks have the opposite charge to their corresponding normal quarks). It is dangerous because if antimatter comes into contact with normal matter the two will anihillate releasing pure energy according to E=mc^2. That's why the small amounts of anitmatter that have been created in labs have been stored using magnetic fields to suspend them in a vacuum.

IT IS NOT HYPOTHETICAL OR SOMETHING FROM STAR TREK. IT IS VERY REAL, PART OF THE FUNDAMENTAL LAWS OF PHYSICS, AND ANTIMATTER HAS BEEN SYNTHESISED FOR REAL.

Answer 2

Antimatter is another form of matter, comparable to the matter that we interact with everyday. It has mass and charge, like the protons and electrons in atoms. However, antimatter particles are the 'opposites' of their matter components. For example, the antimatter counterpart to the electron is the positron. The positron has the same mass and charge as the electron, except that it's charge is positive instead of negative.

Further, if the two opposing particles collide, that explode in a burst of energy, usually resulting in a gamma ray. This is a fine example of Einstein's famous equation E = mc^2.

Antimatter is around us in small amounts all the time, but it only exists very briefly so it poses no threat. However, a large quantity of antimatter would be very dangerous. If you shook hands with your antimatter counterpart, the resulting explosion would certainly devastate your entire state. The upside is that, for some reason, there is mysteriously very little antimatter in the universe compared to matter, so it is difficult to get ahold of. Scientist have suceeded in created anti-hydrogen atoms in the lab, but only a miniscule amount at a time.

Answer 3

All the answers above are a little out of date.

Fermilabs and CERN both have the ability to produce relatively large amounts of anti protons. They use a speed of light proton beam to impact a block of nickel. large numbers of anti-protons are created, sent to a "debuncher", they come out in a cluster, then are sent to an accumulator.

look up "pbar" on the net.

in the past, it was thought that if an antiproton met a proton, they would annihilate each other releasing 100% of the energy in both particles.

if you can believe the government, apparently this is not true.

some years ago, the "starburst" was observed, wherein a proton met anti proton and the result was alot of energy, but four pions as well!

pions are fairly massive particles, so that clearly not all the mass was converted.

they used to believe that a particle and its anti particle were identical inside, except that they were like mirror images of each other.

only the "quantum numbers" were different, i.e. spin, charge, dipole and quadrupole moments - maybe.

now, they think that there is an asymmetry involved. that the internal parts, the quarks, are arranged differently.

a mirror image would be symmetrical, but opposite.

an asymmetry is some change in the mapping of points within the particle, or some fundamental difference in its parts

Answer 4

A hypothetical form of matter that is identical to physical matter except that its atoms are composed of antielectrons, antiprotons, and antineutrons. For example, an antiproton has a negative charge while a proton has a positive charge. When a particle of matter and a particle of antimatter come into contact with each other they are destroyed, releasing energy.

Answer 5

to tell u in short it is the exactly the opposite of matter like electron is matter and positron is antimatter .it is believed that this universe exists in two forms one that we live in and the other of the anti matter both of which were generated during the big bang now the big question is it dangerous,yess if u r made of matter.b coz they combine and generate energy in its purest form.the entire mass of both the matter and antimatter disapearesand is given out in the form of energy.

Answer 6

In the early 20th century, when quantum mechanics and relativity wwre new, british physiscist Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac invented an equation to describ eelectrons moving at close to teh speed of light. To his surprise not only did teh equation describe positive energy electrons, it also described negative energy electrons. Dirac realized that those particles, should tehy exist would be identical to the electron, except that they would have the oposite charge. Dirac named them positrons and predicted their existence.
The positron is teh first exampl eof antimatter. Every particle of matter has an anti-particle of anti-matter that is exactly identical except that it has the oposite charge.
Whne matter and anti-matter collide, they both anihilate one another and vanish in a flash of gamma rays.
A pea sized amount of anti-matter, should it come into contact with matter would release as much energy as a nuclear bomb. SO its definitively very da gerous stuff.
Luckily on earth, the only anti-matter ismade in particle accelerators ,and there's never more than a few 100s of particle of anti-matter around at any given time

Answer 7

antimatter is very dangerous!!!!!
it is the opposite from matter. everything in the world is made from matter so if it came into contact with anything (even air) it would explode!!!
read Dan Brown's "angels and demons"!!! its a good book and it explains antimatter very well!!!

Answer 8

normal matter is composed of neutron, proton and electrons.
anti-matter is composed of anti-neutron, anti-proton and anti-electrons, these are the anti particles of the corresponding particles. According to Dirac theory every particle has its anti particle. An anti particle has same mass and spin but opposite charge (but the magnitude same).
You may think it is only a hypothesis. No, the existence of anti-electron has been proven in lab. when an anti-electron collides with an electron, both of them annihilates giving rise to gamma ray. In that sense, antimatter may be dangerous.

Answer 9

The mirror image would be inverted in the case of an antiphoton as would the corresponding waveform and particulate thereof.

And thats even more curious than antimatter itself.

Answer 10

A hypothetical form of matter that is identical to physical matter except that its atoms are composed of antielectrons, antiprotons, and antineutrons.