This is something we were talking about in Chemistery today and I thought I'd through it out to you all, make you think. I want to see what people's different ideas are.
2006-08-30 09:55:26 · 10 answers · asked by Loved By Someone Above 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Antimatter is routinely created in particle physics. It cannot exist for very long because when antimatter comes into contact with "normal" matter they will annihilate one another. Interestingly, the reason why the universe as we know it exists is because of something known as baryon asymmetry. Normally when a particle is created, it's equivalent antiparticle is created along with it. Thus the process of creating an electron must also involve creating a positron, and so on. The problem is, because matter and antimatter particles annihilate each other, the universe we see around us shouldn't exist. However, Andrei Sakharov showed that under the conditions operating at the time of the Big Bang there existed a tiny asymmetry within the laws of physics that allowed more matter to be created than antimatter.
2006-08-30 10:04:38 · answer #1 · answered by Sir Psycho Sexy 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's not a question of CAN it exist... it definitely, indisputably exists.
First of all, some radioactive materials emit antiparticles. This was discovered as early as 1932 (they used to call it 'contraterrene' of CT matter). As mentioned before, this is even used commercially by PET scans... the radioisotope emits positrons and a machine detects them.
Since the early 1990's, they've been able to produce whole nucleii of antimatter in labs as well. For certain types of experiments it had come into almost casual use. For example, FermiLabs in America has a particle accelerator that routinely smashes together helium and anti-helium... the explosions are QUITE energetic. For atoms, anyway.
Naturally, there are precautions that have to be undertaken... you can't just make it and set it on a slide. It always has to be contained in magnetic fields so it doesn't come into contact with normal matter. Likewise, there haven't been any huge amounts of it produced, so it's not like someone has a pound of antimatter sitting around somewhere, though theoretically there's no reason why someone couldn't make so much if they had enough time and energy to do so.
2006-08-30 17:03:02 · answer #2 · answered by Doctor Why 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Antimatter and matter have similar properties, the major difference being a reversal of polarity in electric charge. Every particle has an antiparticle, except those particles of zero spin (those are their own antiparticles).
A positron is the electron's antiparticle. It's created in a number of nuclear reactions, including those that keep stars burning. When a positron meets an electron, they cancel each other as matter, to be replaced by a photon with (E=mc^2) energy equal to the mass of both.
The time reverse of that process also happens. Very energetic photons (above ~1 MeV) can decay into an electron and a positron on divergent paths whose sums of energy and momentum conserve those that the photon had before the "pair production" occurred.
2006-08-30 17:35:52 · answer #3 · answered by David S 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Predicted in 1928 by physicist Paul Dirac, anti-particles were first detected in 1932. Antimatter positrons annihilate their normal matter counterparts, electrons, near the center of the Milky Way Galaxy and in a large cloud that extends several thousand light-years above the center. The annihilations create high-energy gamma rays which have been observed by astonomers.
When particles collide with their anti-particles, the effects are devastating; they both disintegrate into electromagnetic radiation, their energy carried away in neutral particles called photons. In other words, if there were as much antimatter as matter in the universe, we wouldn’t be here to ask grand questions.
The universe is somehow unbalanced, biased toward the existence of matter over antimatter. One of the greatest challenges in modern cosmology is to unveil the roots of this cosmic imperfection.
2006-08-30 23:23:37 · answer #4 · answered by Its not me Its u 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The concept of anti-matter is difficult to grasp, but anti-matter does exist. It is the other side of the coin. And, yes, when antimatter meets matter, they annihilate each other. Talking about coins: imagine that you have a flat piece of metal from which you have to cut coins from. When you cut a coin, you produce a hole in the piece of metal that you have. That hole is the antimatter. The coin is the matter. If you put the coin back, then the hole will disappear, and so will the coin, because it will become part of the big piece of metal, again. This explanation is the one that made me understand this concept when I was like you. I hope that it helped you.
2006-08-30 20:58:52 · answer #5 · answered by mrquestion 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
People make it all the time - in small amounts in colliders. PET (Positron Emission Tomography) uses anti-matter electroncs (positrons) for medical imaging.
2006-08-30 17:02:52 · answer #6 · answered by larry n 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Anti - matter does exist and it has been detected. It perhaps provides symmetry to the Universe.
2006-08-30 23:33:44 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not in the presence of matter...they cancel each other out and release pure energy.
2006-08-30 16:58:40 · answer #8 · answered by Some Guy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the word is.. anti- meaning no... matter...
Most people would say that it doesn't exist but scientist say it does.
2006-08-30 16:58:40 · answer #9 · answered by sellatieeat 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it does exist. or so astrophysicians reckon.
2006-08-30 17:01:56 · answer #10 · answered by stephizzal 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋