![]() You can't find hydrogen just lying around somewhere, the stuff is far too reactive. The problem is that while there exist petroleum wells, there ain't no such thing as a hydrogen well. Burn hydrogen and the only additional product is natural ecologically pure water. Burn gasoline and in addition to energy you also produce toxic air pollution. Proponents point out how hydrogen is a "green" fuel, unlike nasty petroleum or gasoline. ![]() The same situation with antimatter also exists with respect to the so-called "hydrogen economy". What is not well known is that unless the situation is non-standard, antimatter is not a power source. And mass is always a problem in spacecraft design, so any way of reducing it is welcome. The main virtue of antimatter power is that it is incredibly concentrated, which drastically reduces the mass of antimatter fuel required for a given application. Thankfully the term is now pretty much obsolete. Some use the term "negatron" to mean "electron", other use it to mean "anti-proton". Older scientific papers are even more annoying. So they are written as e - and e + respectively. Electrons have a negative charge, positrons have a postive charge. Just to be annoying, sometimes they denote antiparticles by writing the charge sign. ![]() So if a proton is p an antiproton is written as p. If you read scientific papers about antimatter, they sometimes denote antiparticles by writing a bar over the particle's symobol. But anti-neutrons spin in the opposite direction and have other differences. Neutrons have no charge, neither do anti-neutrons. The practical effect is the particle has the opposite charge, a proton has a positive charge while an anti-proton has a negative charge. The antimatter version of a given particle looks like the particle seen in a mirror (that is, some of the properties have equal magnitude but opposite sign). Actually the energy of the explosion will create other particles as well, see below. The remaining electron, proton, and two neutrons will come flying out of the blast. So if an anti-atom of anti-hydrogen (with one positron and one anti-proton) strikes a normal atom of helium-4 (with two electrons, two protons, and two neutrons) the single positron will annihilate one electron and the single anti-proton will annihilate one proton. Antimatter protons are called anti-protons, antimatter electrons are called positrons, and antimatter neutrons are called anti-neutrons. ![]() Technically, it is the matter and antimatter subatomic particles that annhilate each other, not the atoms as such. Once more, to get some idea of the amount of damage represented by a given amount of Joules, refer to the Boom Table. M is mass in kilograms and E is energy in joules. ![]() c is the speed of light which is 299,792,458 meters per second. Why 1.8×10 14 joules? Surely you remember Einstein's famous E = Mc 2. How much bang? Well, in theory if you mix one gram of matter with one gram of antimatter you should get 1.8×10 14 joules of energy or about 43 kilotons. And by "explode" we mean "makes a nuclear bomb look like a damp firecracker." This process is technically called "annihilation" which is such a vividly evocative term.Īny Star Trek fan can tell you it can't be beat when it comes to getting the most bang for your buck. Specifically if atom of antimatter comes into contact with an atom of matter, the mass of both is converted from matter into energy. Antimatter (sometimes called "Contra-terrene" or "Seetee") is weird stuff that explodes if it comes into contact with ordinary matter. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |