Antimatter

[Brody Peffley]

Would you be worried if terrorist had antimatter? if they had antimatter.. "HOW THE HECK DID THEY GET ANTIMATTER??!!!" What would you say?

 

[dave carver]

I worry about reality, I let the physicists worry about the theoretical.

 

[luke strawwalker]

Would you be worried if terrorist had antimatter? if they had antimatter.. "HOW THE HECK DID THEY GET ANTIMATTER??!!!" What would you say?

I worry that the Klingons have antimatter... does that count?? LOL

Later! OL JR

 

[Brody Peffley]

I worry that the Klingons have antimatter... does that count?? LOL

Later! OL JR

oh god not the Klingons, Its star trek all over again..

 

[MClark]

I worry more about propane.
I worry about the idiot pumping gasoline next to me.

 

[Pantherjon]

Would you be worried if terrorist had antimatter? if they had antimatter.. "HOW THE HECK DID THEY GET ANTIMATTER??!!!" What would you say?

It takes a LOT to create and contain antimatter..Yes, it is a real thing..It does exist..To show how hard it is to create; the Large Hadron Collider at CERN makes the stuff..Their total output is 1 NANO gram..To get enough of the stuff to make a weapon to worry about would take longer then the universe is old(13.7 Billion years, give or take a couple hundred thousand)...

Yeah, I am a nerd and have just read the book Antimatter by Frank Close...:tongue:

 

[goldlizard]

I am more worried about the terrorist that has a dirty bomb!

 

[chadrog]

Has no one seen Angels and Demons? This is scary stuff!

 

[GDJ]

Would you be worried if terrorist had antimatter? if they had antimatter.. "HOW THE HECK DID THEY GET ANTIMATTER??!!!" What would you say?

Honestly, I have better things to worry about. I have a greater chance of getting smashed on the freeway than being attacked with Antimatter by a terrorist.

Besides, I vowed to myself to not let the "fear" of "terrorists" get to me or interfere with my life. If I let them, they win.

I'm also more stubborn than they are.

 

[shrox]

I possess the only know supply of antimatter. I keep it safely stored under my bed in a sock with a twist tie to keep it sealed.

 

[dave carver]

I possess the only know supply of antimatter. I keep it safely stored under my bed in a sock with a twist tie to keep it sealed.

*Whew* Good to know the universes supply is safe. That's a load off my mind...

 

[degreaser]

First, radioactivity, now antimatter. Both by new members. I sense a pattern...

 

[Pantherjon]

Has no one seen Angels and Demons? This is scary stuff!

Yep...Pure fiction..Tom Hanks did a pretty good job in it..

Another thing to think about, antimatter coming into contact with 'normal' matter will NOT start a chain reaction..1 antimatter atom collides with 1 normal matter atom, they annihilate each other in a very brief(a trillionth of a second) very energetic burst and the constituent 'little bits' of the event go scattering off..And then that is it. No cascading where one antimatter atom will hit a normal atom causing it to change to antimatter and it hitting another normal matter atom and continue the chain..

 

[cavecentral]

The Antimatter shoe bomb. LOL.

 

[K'Tesh]

I worry that the Klingons have antimatter... does that count?? LOL

Later! OL JR

I will not confirm nor deny that we have Antimatter.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

Has no one seen Angels and Demons? This is scary stuff!

I enjoyed both the book and the movie, DESPITE the antimatter part being stupid.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

Would you be worried if terrorist had antimatter? if they had antimatter.. "HOW THE HECK DID THEY GET ANTIMATTER??!!!" What would you say?

If terrorists had antimatter, I would hit them with my photon torpedoes.

 

[CitationSquirrel]

First, radioactivity, now antimatter. Both by new members. I sense a pattern...

Not all the newbies are crazy.

 

[Peartree]

Yep...Pure fiction..Tom Hanks did a pretty good job in it..

Another thing to think about, antimatter coming into contact with 'normal' matter will NOT start a chain reaction..1 antimatter atom collides with 1 normal matter atom, they annihilate each other in a very brief(a trillionth of a second) very energetic burst and the constituent 'little bits' of the event go scattering off..And then that is it. No cascading where one antimatter atom will hit a normal atom causing it to change to antimatter and it hitting another normal matter atom and continue the chain..

It doesn't cause a chain reaction, but it DOES release an enormous amount of energy. A small amount would make a big boom.

 

[Area66]

Terrorists! I live in the wood, they strike in cities.

 

[Mushtang]

I'm worried about Matter and Anti-Terrorists. As in, the TSA is a joke at airports - their Anti-Terrorist precautions won't Matter.

 

[tightwad]

Anti-matter?...Hmmm, I never won a discussion with my wife using it! :y: So it Doesn't-Matter! :lol:

 

[StefanJ]

I read, somewhere, that the energy released by the conversion of a gram of matter into energy (which would include the combination of a half a gram of antimatter with whatever normal matter it meets) is roughly the equivalent of a 25 kiloton bomb.

As I understand it, the particles released are mostly gamma rays. These will penetrate some matter easily (low "opacity") and have a trouble penetrating others, instead heating them up. So, if you want a really big explosion you'd have to surround the stuff with a dense jacket of material opaque to gamma rays.

One of the engineering challenges of an antimatter rocket is how to actually capture the reaction products. Gamma rays would, for example, whiz right through hydrogen gas. In some proposals you'd use antimatter to set off fusion reactions. Another proposal I read about would shoot antiparticles into a really dense metal alloy core, which would heat up; you'd run hydrogen or some other reaction mass through that.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

I read, somewhere, that the energy released by the conversion of a gram of matter into energy (which would include the combination of a half a gram of antimatter with whatever normal matter it meets) is roughly the equivalent of a 25 kiloton bomb.

As I understand it, the particles released are mostly gamma rays. These will penetrate some matter easily (low "opacity") and have a trouble penetrating others, instead heating them up. So, if you want a really big explosion you'd have to surround the stuff with a dense jacket of material opaque to gamma rays.

One of the engineering challenges of an antimatter rocket is how to actually capture the reaction products. Gamma rays would, for example, whiz right through hydrogen gas. In some proposals you'd use antimatter to set off fusion reactions. Another proposal I read about would shoot antiparticles into a really dense metal alloy core, which would heat up; you'd run hydrogen or some other reaction mass through that.

And how are the dilithium crystals involved?

 

[dlazarus6660]

And how are the dilithium crystals involved?

You weren't paying attention during your Star Trek 101 course were you?
Dilithium crystals are the hardest natural substance in known universe.

Watch the last 10-15 minutes of Elaan of Troyius, you'll get your answer.

 

[AlexK]

I read, somewhere, that the energy released by the conversion of a gram of matter into energy (which would include the combination of a half a gram of antimatter with whatever normal matter it meets) is roughly the equivalent of a 25 kiloton bomb.

As I understand it, the particles released are mostly gamma rays. These will penetrate some matter easily (low "opacity") and have a trouble penetrating others, instead heating them up. So, if you want a really big explosion you'd have to surround the stuff with a dense jacket of material opaque to gamma rays.

One of the engineering challenges of an antimatter rocket is how to actually capture the reaction products. Gamma rays would, for example, whiz right through hydrogen gas. In some proposals you'd use antimatter to set off fusion reactions. Another proposal I read about would shoot antiparticles into a really dense metal alloy core, which would heat up; you'd run hydrogen or some other reaction mass through that.

One gram of mass-to-energy conversion gets you 90 terajoules of energy, which is about the same yield as a 22.5 kiloton bomb. And, dare I say it, a whole lot more compact.

Harnessing antimatter, frankly, is a pain in the kiester. You can't just react electrons with positrons, since that only produces gamma rays. You need to use heavier particles (protons or atomic nuclei), which produce neutrinos (and more gamma rays). Neutrinos aren't exactly heavyweights so you can't just stick them in a rocket nozzle and expect them to pay attention. Using an antimatter reaction to heat a surface to warm a flow of hydrogen is certainly possible, but we already can do that with regular nuclear reactions. Plus in order to keep your astronauts from glowing green after flying in your spaceship, you'll need several FEET of lead shielding between the reaction and the rest of the spacecraft to keep those gammas from getting to them. Someone just needs to go invent dilithium so we can avoid all of this. :grin:

 

[JStarStar]

I hope the terrorists don't get a Death Star.

:y::y:

 

[adrian]

I hope the terrorists don't get a Death Star.

They won't. The government will get the Death Star, then the terrorists will blow it up.

What you really want to worry about is transporters. Partly because if the terrorists get them, all the security features in the world suddenly become worthless. And partly because if they're the type which convert matter to energy and then beam it to the destination, e=mc^2 means a transporter malfunction or sabotage will have a blast radius the size of a major city.

 

[Nerull]

If they've figured out a portable, compact containment method for antimatter we should give them a nobel prize. It would probably work for high energy plasma too!

Current antimatter storage relies on a very large magnetic storage ring (similar to a particle accelerator, but it simply keeps particles going around the ring) with all the air pumped out.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

The government will get the Death Star, then the terrorists will blow it up.

Those aren't terrorists! That's the Rebel Alliance! Whose side are you on anyway?