Live data from Hacker News

Antimatter atoms produced and trapped at CERN

press.web.cern.ch

11–20 of 95 posts

Re: Antimatter atoms produced and trapped at CERN

#12
post #10
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I think they have had 38 atoms, since it is possible to hold on to atoms of antihydrogen in this way for about a tenth of a second.

Let the bidding war... begin! Bidding is over! The ex-antimatter goes to...

I won the auction, and all I got was this stupid matter!

(ex-antimatter == !(!matter) == matter)

Re: Antimatter atoms produced and trapped at CERN

#13
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let the bidding war... begin! Bidding is over! The ex-antimatter goes to...

I won the auction, and all I got was this stupid matter! (ex-antimatter == !(!matter) == matter)

Antimatter and matter annihilate each other upon contact, releasing the energy from both atoms. So the ex-antimatter would be half the released energy from the collision. I think?

Re: Antimatter atoms produced and trapped at CERN

#18
post #6

So far they have 38 atoms. I wonder what the price per kilo or pound of antimatter is... :)

That depends on how much it cost per atom. I am going to say somewhere between 1 cent and 1 million dollors so:

  1 KG of Hydrogen has ~1000 * 6.02 * 10 ^ 23 atoms.
  @ 1 cent per atom that's 6.022 * 10 ^ 12 trillion dollors.
  @ 1 million $ per atom that's 6.022 * 10 ^ 20 trillion dollors.

Re: Antimatter atoms produced and trapped at CERN

#19
post #14

I hope they will finally definitely answer if anti-matter also has anti-gravity. Not a single scientist thinks it does, but it's one of those things you just want confirmed.

I would have thought this had already been tested on antiprotons, but I'm not seeing any references for it. Just a note that results from testing anti-hydrogen for gravity should be had in the next few years. Maybe containing something so charged overwhelms gravity?

Re: Antimatter atoms produced and trapped at CERN

#20
post #14

I hope they will finally definitely answer if anti-matter also has anti-gravity. Not a single scientist thinks it does, but it's one of those things you just want confirmed.

I would have thought this had already been tested on antiprotons, but I'm not seeing any references for it. Just a note that results from testing anti-hydrogen for gravity should be had in the next few years. Maybe containing something so charged overwhelms gravity?

Most antiprotons move too fast to test. Plus the charge is strong enough to overwhelm any signal from gravity.
Post reply on HN