what is antimatter?

Answer 1

In particle physics, antimatter extends the concept of the antiparticle to matter, wherin if a particle and its antiparticle come into contact with each other, the two annihilate —that is, they may both be converted into other particles with equal energy in accordance with Einstein's equation E = mc2. This gives rise to high-energy photons (gamma rays) or other particle–antiparticle pairs. The resulting particles are endowed with an amount of kinetic energy equal to the difference between the rest mass of the products of the annihilation and the rest mass of the original particle-antiparticle pair, which is often quite large.

Answer 2

The positron is the anti electron. When the two are in close proximity They don't collide - but their wave functions overlap. The more the wave functions overlap, the shorter the positron and electron's time on earth is! A wave function is an expression to describe in quantum physics the wave-like nature of a particle. You can't think of electrons and positrons as billiard balls rather as a smeared entity with some chance of finding "it" in a certain area of space.

Anyway - as the two wave functions overlap, eventually (less than 100 nano seconds) the mass of the two particles is transformed into electromagnetic energy (photons). If the two particles happen to be moving at the same time - the photons will have higher energy than if the two were staionary.

Now - positrons are created by radioactive isotopes (one is radioactive common salt (naCl). Each time one of these isotopes decays it announces the event to the worls by emittinga photon. The positron then travels out of the source and can be made to traven into a matter (glass say). Eventually the positron decelerates and jiggles around in the glass until it picks of an unfortunate electron and decays into two gamma photons. Now - if you measure the time between the first photon (from the salt) and the other from the decayed positron and electron, you can work out how long the positron lived for. It stands to reason that if your glass is full of tiny microscopic holes then the positron will live longer than if it is squeezed into a a glass with no tiny holes - because the positron relaxes into the spaces.

If you heat the glass and melt it you can watch the lifetime of the positrons change as the glass changes state from liquid to solid. This is a fascinating subject - called positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS)- which is carried out in labs all over the worls. there are no vast accelerators - just tiny radioactive sources - antimatter is more common than you think! PAS is also used as a medical diagnosis tool - like X rays.

Fianlly, antimatter powers the starship enterprise!

Good luck - a great question!

Answer 3

Antimatter is a charged opposite of regular matter. When antimatter comes in contact with matter, pure energy is given off according to Einstein's famous equation E= mc2. For example in "normal" matter the proton in the nucleus of an atom is positively charged. In antimatter, it will be negatively charged, but will still have the same mass as a normal proton. In a normal atom, the electron has a negative charge. Its antimatter counter-part, called a positron, has a positive charge. Scientists in the lab can create antimatter and have it exist for very short periods of time.

Answer 4

It is the opposite of matter. Every particle has its antiparticle. It has the same properties as its normal particle, except opposite charge. When they meet each other, they anhialate in a flash of light/energy. Why are we made of matter and not antimatter? At the Big Bang, equal amounts of both were made. But antimatter decay slightly faster than matter. They become photons, leaving matter which cannot be anhialated to form us. So says the theory.

Answer 5

Nice easy question...

Every particle in physics has an antiparticle which has the same mass but the opposite spin and charge.

For example the electron and the position the proton and the anti-proton. The photon is its own antiparticle !

When the two particles meet they are destroyed totally in a puff of energy using E=mc^2.

When the universe was created there was an equal amount of matter and anti matter, but some physical process create more matter than anti-matter which resulted in the matter dominated universe we see today.

Answer 6

Exactly the same as matter but with opposite charge. The anti-matter counterpart of an electron is a positron. Protons are made of up and down quarks and anti-protons are made from anti-up and anti-down quarks. The only interesting thing is that when an electron meets a positron, they disappear and a lot of energy is created. The amount of energy is E = mc^2 where m is the combined mass of the positron and electron, and c is the speed of light.

Answer 7

Its the opposite of matter. You should read Angles and Demons by Dan Brown. Its all about antimatter, fictional of course.

Answer 8

Every fundamental particle, quarks and leptons, has a corresponding anti-particle which, when brought into contact with its partner, goes kaboom. Note this includes particles with no electric charge such as neutrinos, so the difference is more than just an opposite electric charge.

Answer 9

To skip the science answers, let's say that, if we lived in a universe with antimatter, everything would go backward..the clock, our lives, the water would go up and never down..it's practically impossible to image such a place, because, with inverse gravity, that planet would spread into space.

Answer 10

For every matter particle,there is a corresponding antiparticle
These antiparticles collectively are known as antimatter.Positron
is the antiparticle of electron