Does antimatter fall down or up? We now have a definitive answer.
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September 30, 2023 8:17 AM PDT
The sciences fascinate me and most of it is way over my head to understand even a little. I do like reading about science facts and expanding my mind a bit. Here's an article on anti-matter and gravity that I found interesting. Maybe you don't even have to read it to answer the question?
https://www.popsci.com/science/antimatter-gravity/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
Albert Einstein didn’t know about the existence of antimatter when he came up with the theory of general relativity, which has governed our understanding of gravity ever since. More than a century later, scientists are still debating how gravity affects antimatter, the elusive mirror versions of the particles that abide within us and around us. In other words, does an antimatter droplet fall down or up?
Common physics wisdom holds that it should fall down. A tenet of general relativity itself known as the weak equivalence principle implies that gravity shouldn’t care whether something is matter or antimatter. At the same time, a small contingent of experts argue that antimatter falling up might explain, for instance, the mystical dark energy that potentially dominates our universe.
October 5, 2023 12:24 PM PDTFascinating reading, I've read articles and watched some YouTube videos on Antimatter, I have to say they go over my head quite a lot too. From what I know the idea was first conceived in 1928 by physicist Paul Dirac then in 1932 the evidence was found. Good article here:
https://cms.cern/physics/what-and-where-antimatter
It also fascinating that Star Trek used it, in fact Star Trek borrowed a few ideas from science:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_in_Star_Trek
The other thing is from what I have read, if we could produce, store and use Antimatter correctly it could offer almost unlimited power more so than fusion!
This post was edited by Mark Ransome at October 5, 2023 12:25 PM PDTOctober 5, 2023 8:17 PM PDTOh, antimatter is way over my head too but if you are talking Star Trek, I can visualize it so much easier.
OMG, your Wiki-link on Star Trek technology is awesome. I have the link open and have glanced at it some already. Thank you for sharing.
Very interesting that if we could harness antimatter we would have so much power. Makes me think of nuclear power and if antimatter could replace it some day. Would antimatter power be more dangerous or less dangerous than nuclear power?
October 7, 2023 10:29 AM PDTInfinite possibilities make science fascinating. Whatever number you have you can halve or double it, so take a car braking to a halt. 30, 20, 10, 5 - but when you get down to 1mph then .5, then .25. Eventually just before stopping it may be doing .001 (a thousandth mph) but of course halve that. Does the car ever actually stop?
We know it does but how does the theory work.
Another puzzle, if you drop a ball from a height it hits the ground then bounces back up, assuming there are no angles involved and the ball drops vertically down then up at some point the ball must be stationary to alter direction.
Now imaging a fly flying horizontally towards a train (No angles involved), fly hits train, as fly completely changes direction by 180 degrees it must momentarily stop, if it is touching the front of the train and the fly momentarily stops does the train stop?
Maybe molecules withing the train do, I have no idea but understanding the theory is fascinating.
Geffers
October 7, 2023 4:16 PM PDTAll of your examples are fascinating, but I think the one that gets me the most is the fly going towards the train and what happens on impact, with a momentary stop, if measured would be a negative decimal number that must be so long to measure the moment in time from impact to what happens next.
The fly needs to warp speed to divert it's impact
