Essay On Antimatter

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Most people have heard of antimatter before but don’t know what it is or means. Antimatter is used in particle physics and consists of antiparticles. These antiparticles have the same mass as regular particles but they have an opposite charge from other particles as well as other differences in particle properties. Antimatter can be created in particle accelerators and also can be produced naturally. It is created naturally when radioactive isotopes decay. When antimatter is created it could potentially be used for medical purposes, fuel, and weapons.
My understanding of antimatter is that it is a match to the particle of regular matter except for it has positively charged electrons and negatively charged protons unlike regular matter. These are called antielectron, or also known as the positron. There are also antiprotons. A proton is the combination of quarks. A quark is a subatomic particle that has a fraction of an electric charge, they are building blocks. A proton has two up quarks and one down quark. An up quark has an electric charge of +2/3, and the down quark has an electric charge of -1/3. This means the proton has a charge of +1 (2/3 + 2/3 - 1/3). An antiproton is the combination of 2 antiup quarks, each having an electric charge of -2/3, and 1 antidown quark having a +1/3 charge. This combination would give the antiproton a charge of -1 (- 2/3 - 2/3 + 1/3) exactly the opposite of the proton. Since there are antielectrons, and antiprotons then of course there are antineutrons. A neutron is made up of 2 down quarks and 1 up quark, which is why it doesn’t have an electric charge (- 1/3 - 1/3 + 2/3 = 0). An antineutron would then have 2 antidown quarks and 1 antiup quark, again, having no net electric charge (+ 1/3 + 1/...

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...ng the spray of particles from the collision, so only 10% to 30% of antiprotons created can be captured. Of these antiprotons that are created only about only 1% can be collected into a steady antiproton beam which can then be cooled enough to start thinking about storing the antiprotons. This makes the mass production of antimatter very unrealistic. So until better technology is made to create antimatter more efficiently most uses of it is not possible. Despite the problem of making antimatter it is still used today. One example is when it is used for high energy physics experiments. It is also used in the medical field. Antielectrons are used in PET, positron emission tomography, scanners; and antiprotons are also used similarly in APR, antiproton radiography, devices. Antimatter might also be used one day to remove tumors or for other similar medical procedures.

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