Yellowstone From United States of America, joined Aug 2006, 3071 posts, RR: 7 Reply 4, posted (5 years 9 months 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 1542 times:
matter+antimatter=photons (generally of the gamma-ray energy level)
Hydrogen is an odorless, colorless gas which, given enough time, turns into people.
MD11Engineer From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 13369 posts, RR: 64 Reply 9, posted (5 years 9 months 4 days 11 hours ago) and read 1462 times:
Quoting Lehpron (Reply 5): So there is radiation no matter what...and here I was thinking that antimatter reactor would allow nuclear energy without radioactive waste... Yeah sure
In a matter-antimatter reaction, both particles convert completely into energy, which usually appears in the shape of high energy photons (gamma rays). This is actually a form of energy conversion, since mass is a form of energy as well, see E=mc^2).
Yellowstone From United States of America, joined Aug 2006, 3071 posts, RR: 7 Reply 10, posted (5 years 9 months 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 1449 times:
Quoting MD11Engineer (Reply 9): This is actually a form of energy conversion, since mass is a form of energy as well, see E=mc^2).
To give a sense of the energies we're talking about, the Hiroshima nuclear bomb, at 15 kilotons TNT equivalent, released about 63,000,000,000,000 (63 trillion) joules of energy. To get the same energy from a matter-antimatter annihilation, you would have to mix just .35 mg matter with .35 mg antimatter. Mixing 70 mg of each yields as much energy as the US's most powerful nuclear warhead currently in service.
Hydrogen is an odorless, colorless gas which, given enough time, turns into people.
Go3Team From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 3266 posts, RR: 21 Reply 11, posted (5 years 9 months 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 1447 times:
As I've always wondered, where can one find antimatter?
Yellowstone From United States of America, joined Aug 2006, 3071 posts, RR: 7 Reply 12, posted (5 years 9 months 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 1446 times:
Quoting Go3Team (Reply 11): As I've always wondered, where can one find antimatter?
High-energy particle collisions. Alternately, the decay of certain isotopes generates positrons (antielectrons).
Hydrogen is an odorless, colorless gas which, given enough time, turns into people.
Klaus From Germany, joined Jul 2001, 20901 posts, RR: 55 Reply 13, posted (5 years 9 months 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 1443 times:
Quoting Go3Team (Reply 11): As I've always wondered, where can one find antimatter?
Nowhere near, fortunately!
Antimatter is only synthesized in the lab - and even there usually just particle by particle, much rarer and more difficult a few atoms made up of those particles.
The energy invested into the huge accelerators and other machinery to create them by far exceeds the energy resulting in the antimatter particles annihilating themselves on contact with regular matter...
It's barely enough to confirm some basic properties, but certainly not enough to do actual macroscopic damage.
MD11Engineer From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 13369 posts, RR: 64 Reply 15, posted (5 years 9 months 4 days 1 hour ago) and read 1413 times:
Quoting Klaus (Reply 13): Nowhere near, fortunately!
Antimatter is only synthesized in the lab - and even there usually just particle by particle, much rarer and more difficult a few atoms made up of those particles.
The main problem is how to store the anti matter, since any contact with regular matter will result in spectacular fireworks. A recent development is a magnetic trap, in which individual antimatter ions are suspended in a magnetic field, to facilitate study.
Quoting Yellowstone (Reply 10): To give a sense of the energies we're talking about, the Hiroshima nuclear bomb, at 15 kilotons TNT equivalent, released about 63,000,000,000,000 (63 trillion) joules of energy. To get the same energy from a matter-antimatter annihilation, you would have to mix just .35 mg matter with .35 mg antimatter. Mixing 70 mg of each yields as much energy as the US's most powerful nuclear warhead currently in service.
Don't forget that in the Hiroshima bomb maybe at maximum 5% of the nuclear fuel actually reacted before the heat blew the rest of the bomb apart and so stopped the reaction. Then, nuclear fision is using only part of the total mass to be converted into energy. Most of the total mass remains in form of fission products.
A pure matter-anti,atter reaction will leave no matter products, all mass will be converted into energy (photons). Unlike fission or fusion, there will also be no free neutrons roaming around to irradiate materials.
Klaus From Germany, joined Jul 2001, 20901 posts, RR: 55 Reply 16, posted (5 years 9 months 4 days ago) and read 1404 times:
Quoting Go3Team (Reply 14): Well damn, I need something for my dylithium chamber project...
When you've got your dilithium crystals already, I'm sure many physicists would be most fascinated and interested in dropping by...!
After all, controlled matter/antimatter reactions are pretty much the strongest energy source we could think of. Unfortunately the military would probably be among the first to have an "application"...
Yellowstone From United States of America, joined Aug 2006, 3071 posts, RR: 7 Reply 17, posted (5 years 9 months 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 1373 times:
Quoting Klaus (Reply 16): When you've got your dilithium crystals already, I'm sure many physicists would be most fascinated and interested in dropping by...!
Actually, a common exercise in chemistry classes when molecular orbitals are introduced is to see if dilithium can exist (i.e. if it is energetically favorable for two lithium atoms to bond). In fact, it can.
Hydrogen is an odorless, colorless gas which, given enough time, turns into people.
MD11Engineer From Germany, joined Oct 2003, 13369 posts, RR: 64 Reply 18, posted (5 years 9 months 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 1358 times:
Quoting Yellowstone (Reply 17): Quoting Klaus (Reply 16):
When you've got your dilithium crystals already, I'm sure many physicists would be most fascinated and interested in dropping by...!
Actually, a common exercise in chemistry classes when molecular orbitals are introduced is to see if dilithium can exist (i.e. if it is energetically favorable for two lithium atoms to bond). In fact, it can.
Sure, you are filling up the 2s orbitals, which become energetically stable if they are occupied by two electrons.
since lithium has 3 electrons, the 1s orbital is fully occupied, while the 2s orbital only contains one electron. To become energetically stable, it needs another electron. This is why it reacts as a alkaline metal. Lithium is very willing to bond with any other element, which can donate another electron, e.g. oxygen or any halogene element.
Lithium is, at room temperature, a metallic solid with a cristalline structure. In this form all the 1s electrons will migrate through the whole cristall as an electron gas and thus stabilise he individual atoms. In gas form I could imagine lithium to form two atom molecules, just like hydrogen, the only caveat would be if the thermic energy at this temperature would exceed the bonding energy between the two atoms.
Lehpron From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 7028 posts, RR: 22 Reply 19, posted (5 years 9 months 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 1318 times:
Quoting David L (Reply 6): I see you're still working on that ultra-power supply for your PC.
I will concede that that was humorous.
Quoting MD11Engineer (Reply 9): In a matter-antimatter reaction, both particles convert completely into energy, which usually appears in the shape of high energy photons (gamma rays).
Quoting MD11Engineer (Reply 15): A pure matter-anti,atter reaction will leave no matter products, all mass will be converted into energy (photons). Unlike fission or fusion, there will also be no free neutrons roaming around to irradiate materials.
It was my understanding that gamma rays can kill us, but if lack of free nuetrons means no irradiated materials; could land decimated by an antimatter bomb be rebuilt upon in a decent amount of time, unlike with a regular nuke, waiting thousands of years? Or we simply do not have the understanding to even guess at those conclusions?
The meaning of life is curiosity; we were put on this planet to explore opportunities.
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