Could a life made of antimatter interact with a life made of matter?

[Dremmer]

Suppose there were an intelligent lifeform that was made out of antimatter. What would happen if it came in contact with life made out of matter? Could it come close to a matter being? What would happen if it touched a matter being?

 

[armolinasf]

well, if matter and anti matter come into contact with each other they basically explode and destroy one another...so you would want to avoid contact.

 

[mathman]

Matter stuff and antimatter stuff annihilate each other when coming into contact. It doesn't matter if the stuff is living or inanimate as long as it is made of the equivalent material - matter consisting of protons, neutrons, and electrons, and antimatter consisting of the equivalent antiparticles.

 

[Dremmer]

Matter stuff and antimatter stuff annihilate each other when coming into contact. It doesn't matter if the stuff is living or inanimate as long as it is made of the equivalent material - matter consisting of protons, neutrons, and electrons, and antimatter consisting of the equivalent antiparticles.

Could a matter being have a conversation with an antimatter being as long as they never touch each other? Or could they not even be close to each other?

 

[Vagn]

Could a matter being have a conversation with an antimatter being as long as they never touch each other? Or could they not even be close to each other?

Well you'd need an atmosphere if we mean talking, which means there must be molecules of either matter or antimatter so one of them would be vapourised, the other would then receive a nice amount of ionising radiation.

 

[Drakkith]

I suppose you could chat over a radio signal or something. Anything else would require a medium sich as air for the sound to travel through, and the air is going to be lethal to one of the beings...

 

[FtlIsAwesome]

If a matter guy and an antimatter guy were in space, wearing spacesuits, they could communicate using some kind of clumsy sign language.
Or they could just use the radio.
Matter and antimatter only blow up on contact, not at a distance.

 

[Chronos]

It is highly probable no appreciable quantity of anti matter survived the early universe. According to theory, the early universe was dense and homogenous when matter appeared on the scene [electrons, protons, etc.]. For reasons unknown, a small matter excess remained once all the matter and anti matter finished slugging it out. Anyways, if you happened to cross paths with anything anti matter, you would have no way of knowing short of lobbing matter at it - preferably a very small amount.

 

[Kartikc]

hello...i have got a basic question...does matter attract of repel antimatter...??

 

[Drakkith]

hello...i have got a basic question...does matter attract of repel antimatter...??

Antimatter has almost the exact same properties as normal matter with the exception of charge. For example, you CANNOT tell the difference between an Electron and its anti particle, the Positron, except that the Positron is POSITIVELY charged while the electron is negatively charged. They most definitely attract each other since they are oppositely charged.

A proton and an antiproton attract each other either, because protons are positive and antiprotons are negative. An electron and an antiproton would repel each other because both are negative while a positron and a proton would repel each other because both are positive.

 

[mathman]

Further note: There are neutrons and anti-neutrons and the only force between them would be gravity (very small).

 

[FtlIsAwesome]

hello...i have got a basic question...does matter attract of repel antimatter...??

Opposite charges attract, same charges repel. So proton & antiproton attract, while proton & positron repel.
Gravity will still be attractive, but you'd need a large amount to notice.

 

[Radrook]

Excerpt:

Antimatter may sound exotic, but it's already used in everyday technology, such as medical PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scanners.

During a PET scan, the patient is injected with radioactive tracer molecules that emit positrons when they decay. These positrons then come into contact with electrons in the body, and the two annihilate, releasing two gamma-ray photons. The gamma-ray photons are then detected by the scanner, giving a 3-D image of what's going on inside the body.

Source: Livescience.com
http://skoola.com/read_news.php?id=186

 

[Mr.CityColleg]

Opposite charges attract, same charges repel. So proton & antiproton attract, while proton & positron repel.
Gravity will still be attractive, but you'd need a large amount to notice.

Nice, I wonder what happens when something bigger than an atom like an organism from the anti matter and regular matter world collides.

 

[FtlIsAwesome]

but you'd need a large amount to notice.

I just realized I need to clarify a bit.

If you had 1 kg of normal matter and 1 kg of antimatter on Earth, they'd both weigh the same because both are affected by gravity (ignoring the fact that if the antimatter touches any matter it'll annihilate).
Conversely, if Earth were made of antimatter, a kilogram of matter and a kilogram of antimatter would weight the same as each other. Furthermore they would weigh the same as in the previous example.
Now, if you had these two objects in deep space without Earth, their combined gravity will be very weak.


Aslo, just like normal matter, antimatter can have an overall neutral charge. An antihydrogen atom is an example of this. One positron (postive charge) and one antiproton (negative charge) cancel each other out.

Nice, I wonder what happens when something bigger than an atom like an organism from the anti matter and regular matter world collides.

As you get bigger amounts, you get bigger explosions. If those two kilograms reacted, they'd release 43 megatons of energy. This thread may be of interest to you (which was my very first thread ): https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=470392"

 

[Mr.CityColleg]

This reminds me of the game Half-Life.

Anti matter, black holes, portals

How do we determine if anti matter is not around us already?

 

[Chronos]

Anti matter is all around us all the time, just not enough to be a nuisance.

 

[Drakkith]

How do we determine if anti matter is not around us already?

Because we can take a sample of anything around us, test it, and not observe any antimatter.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

During a PET scan, the patient is injected with radioactive tracer molecules that emit positrons when they decay. These positrons then come into contact with electrons in the body, and the two annihilate, releasing two gamma-ray photons. The gamma-ray photons are then detected by the scanner, giving a 3-D image of what's going on inside the body.

This is why people who have PET scans cannot go near pregnant women for an hour or so after the therapy!