Antimatter falls down, not up: CERN experiment confirms theory
Antimatter falls down, not up: CERN experiment confirms theory
Observing this simple phenomenon had eluded physicists for decades.
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Huh I didn't know antimatter was a completely confirmed thing.
After making a thin gas of thousands of antihydrogen atoms, researchers pushed it up a 3-metre-tall vertical shaft surrounded by superconducting electromagnetic coils. These can create a kind of magnetic ‘tin can’ to keep the antimatter from coming into contact with matter and annihilating. Next, the researchers let some of the hotter antiatoms escape, so that the gas in the can got colder, down to just 0.5 °C above absolute zero — and the remaining antiatoms were moving slowly.
The researchers then gradually weakened the magnetic fields at the top and bottom of their trap — akin to removing the lid and base of the can — and detected the antiatoms using two sensors as they escaped and annihilated. When opening any gas container, the contents tend to expand in all directions, but in this case the antiatoms’ low velocities meant that gravity had an observable effect: most of them came out of the bottom opening, and only one-quarter out of the top.
You may have heard of a "PET scan" used in medicine. This uses a type of antimatter called a positron.
https://bigthink.com/hard-science/positron-emission-tomography-antimatter-cancer/
The complexity behind this is fascinating.
Just wait until you find out about MRI :)
That's pretty awesome too, but they don't need molecules with atoms that were modified using particle colliders just minutes/hours before you need them.
Still much more complex than PET conceptually, and much more versatile.
That might be dark matter you're thinking about
Maybe!
Not only does it exist, but bananas give off a fair bit of antimatter due to their decaying potassium isotopes.
Allegedly, im not smart enough to verify it
Would an anti-banana give off normal matter?
Does it matter?
I don't think it would antimatter
Argument anihilated!
AFAIK, yes, you might wanna look into β+- and β־-decay
AFAIK, yes.
There are some very small differences between matter and anti-matter, but I don't think any of them affect radioactivity.
Bananas produce antimatter, but just barely. The main radioactive material in bananas is Potassium-40. A banana is about 0.358% potassium in all. About 0.012% of naturally occurring potassium is the radioactive Potassium-40. Only 0.001% of all radioactive decay events in postassium-40 produce an antiparticle (a positron).
An average banana produces a single positron about every 75 minutes.
Brb. Making a fruit-based matter-antimatter annihilation power plant.
You kid but as a kid when I learned about potatoes and lemon batteries I was like "SCALE THIS UP NOW!"
...if only...
That’s fucking awesome.
El psy kongroo
They say if you microwave bananas, you will get green gel bananas
^dont ^actually ^try ^that
We need a Far Side where ape scientists are colliding two bannanas at high speed
Antimatter was first observed physically back in 1932. A positron, more specifically. Its existence has been confirmed, and accepted, for ages, and some of our technology already operates using antimatter to do its tasks.
anti-matter? ya, we have been observing it for quite a while (testing is difficult for reasons), it naturally accumulates in parts of the Van Allen belt.
Dark matter on the other hand is still completely up for question
The Large Hadron Collider wouldn't work if antimatter wasn't confirmed.
Why wouldn't it work?
Because it involves colliding protons and antiprotons.
No, it either does proton-proton collisions or heavy ions, both regular matter. At TeV energies the added energy from anihalating matter with antimatter isn't that much of a contribution anymore that it would justify the added complexity.
Its predecessor collided positrons with electrons though. But the LEP was more for precise refinement of known interactions and not so much about reaching the highest possible energies.
Sure, but it doesn't just collide protons and antiprotons, does it?