News Scientists trap antimatter

[Lamp]

Scientists trap antimatter long enough to study how it works | Science | The Guardian

 

[Shagrat]

Scary stuff, can't help thinking that we're messing about with pretty powerful stuff there.

If 1kg of antimatter came into contact with 1kg of matter, the resulting explosion would be the equivalent of 43 megatons of TNT – about 3,000 times more powerful than the bomb that exploded over Hiroshima.

 

[Access Denied]

Interesting. If the whole matter meets anti-matter = bang thing is true we could be seeing anti-matter reactors before too long.

 

[Shagrat]

Well either that or a massive hole where Switzerland used to be when some grad student at cern mixes the wrong test tubes.

 

[Job]

Excellent, I do hope this boosts funding for the discovery of the even more elusive Uncle matter.

 

[cHodAX]

Well either that or a massive hole where Switzerland used to be when some grad student at cern mixes the wrong test tubes.

Yep, jizz and anti-matter is an explosive combination, We might bukakke ourself off the face of the earth!

 

[Scouse]

Excellent. One step closer to our impending DOOM!!!

A doom I approve of. In the name of Science. You bastard.

 

[Wij]

Interesting. If the whole matter meets anti-matter = bang thing is true we could be seeing anti-matter reactors before too long.

Unlikely. It will take at least as much energy to create anti-matter as would be released. Not a lot of use really. Remember, there are no perpetual motion machines.

 

[Shagrat]

Unlikely. It will take at least as much energy to create anti-matter as would be released. Not a lot of use really. Remember, there are no perpetual motion machines.

you mean "currently" it takes as much energy to create as would be released. hopefully with more understanding will come more efficient processes.

 

[Zarjazz]

As an on hiatus / ex- physicist this is pretty much meaningless. A few atoms of anti-matter while really interesting from an experimental perspective has absolutely no consequences in the real-world. You would need trillion upon trillions of anti-matter atoms to even approach human visible affects. So far they've created one or two.

 

[TdC]

I have a perpetual motion machine right here in my pants, Wij

 

[cHodAX]

I have a perpetual motion machine right here in my pants, Wij

Actually it is your wrist that is perpetually in motion, it just happens to be in your pants 99.999% of the day!

 

[Wij]

you mean "currently" it takes as much energy to create as would be released. hopefully with more understanding will come more efficient processes.

No, I mean absolutely. It cannot be otherwise.

 

[Scouse]

No, I mean absolutely. It cannot be otherwise.

Why? Brain ain't working after a bottle of wine

 

[ilaya]

cant we use gravity as a kind of perpetual motion machine as its a force that can produce energy.. like in say a dam... we dont expend any energy harnessing that do we? (apart from the initial cost to landscape and building of it ofc) natural process.. sort of.

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

cant we use gravity as a kind of perpetual motion machine as its a force that can produce energy.. like in say a dam... we dont expend any energy harnessing that do we? (apart from the initial cost to landscape and building of it ofc) natural process.. sort of.

erm, no... You'd need a motion downwards to "create" energy. Apostrophes placed because you're actually not creating, or producing energy as you stated. You're changing energy in one form, in this case gravitational potential energy, to another form, generally electricity.
For example, if you're holding a certain mass, for instance a 1kg weight at a certain height, you could drop it to convert its gravitational potential energy to motion (speed). As the weight makes contact with the ground, the energy in the form of motion is converted to heat. This is similar to a car needing energy from the engine to get up to a certain speed, and when braking, this energy is converted to heat in the brakes. However to repeat this again, you would need to use your own energy to lift the weight back up. And as no process is 100% efficient, plus you have to deal with losses due to air friction, you would expel more energy lifting the weight up, than you get back by dropping the weight.

Water dams are actually a form of solar power. The water above a dam has a certain gravitational potential energy. By letting it fall down through a tube and finally through a generator, this gravitational potential energy is first converted to motion in one direction (down), then in another direction (round, in the generator). The generator finally converts that motion to electricity which we can use for our microwave ovens.
This cannot continue forever though without the water getting up that mountain and into the creeks towards the lake. This happens by that water, being at a lower level, getting heated up by solar radiation, vaporized, creating clouds, cooling down and raining down again, and finally ending up in that lake above the dam again.

Actually, the sun doesn't create energy from nothing either. The sun is a huge sphere composed for about 99% of hydrogen (73.46%) and helium (24.85%), with the rest being heavier elements. Every second, through fusion, the sun converts 4.26 x 10^9 kg, or 4'260'000'000 kg of hydrogen to predominantly gamma radiation in its core. While travelling through the layers of plasma, the gamma radiation loses some of its energy and by the time it reaches the surface, it shows up as light.

This is quite a big oversimplification, but there you have it.

mass > light (in sun)
light > heat (in water)
heat > motion (water vapor raining down)
motion > potE (rain collecting in lake)
potE > motion (water pooring to generator)
motion > electricity (generator rotating in magnetic field)

 

[gohan]

lol "traped" it

like it's a concious being



ahahah we out smarted that pesky anti-matter with cheese and a box on a string

 

[Ezteq]

god dammit, that was my antimatter ffs, I've been all over the neighbourhood calling it's name and shaking it's food; I thought it'd got locked in someones shed again, never suspected bloody scientists had it...good job it's microchipped!

*calls off the search*

 

[Thorwyn]

 

[Zenith.UK]

Fixed for you...

 

[Lamp]

the sun doesn't actually convert mass into energy. It releases energy by nuclear fusion. Semantics, I know. Sorry

 

[ilaya]

ok then.. make fatties ride bikes that are wired to national grid when they watch jeremy kyle repeats (coz they arent up in time for the first one)

sorted