Teaching the Science of Anti-matter

--------- #1272 - Teaching the Science of Anti-matter

- In the United States we have grown a generation of teachers and professors that teach kids beliefs not facts. Science is a method to answer questions about nature. A Gallup Poll found the 21% of the people did not know that the Earth revolved around the Sun. 32% of the adults think astrology is a scientific method. This review discusses the science of anti-matter.

- Attachments - Astronauts on the Moon

- If you do not know the answer it must be science. Science is a process. When you are curious about something, you observe its characteristics, you form a hypothesis, and then confirm it right or wrong with objective means.

- The Big Bang Theory contains the assumption that the Universe leaped out of nothing. For this assumption to by true there must be equal amounts of matter and anti-matter, positive and negative charges, north and south poles, space and anti-space, time and anti-time, energy and anti-energy, so, if you add it all up you get back to nothing again.

- When matter and anti-matter come together they annihilate each other in to photons of Gamma Rays. Anti-matter is exactly the same as matter except it has the opposite charge. It appears as a mirror image of matter. A negative electron has a mirror anti-matter positive electron (called a positron).

- Everything in our Universe today is matter. Somehow our matter survived the Big Bang and did not get annihilated. Is there another Universe of equal size out there that is made up of entirely anti-matter? A galaxy of anti-matter could exist in space and we could not tell. We have no evidence for or against this possibility. However, if the galaxy encountered matter it would explode in a burst of Gamma Rays. Somehow, the matter and anti-matter must have separated far enough and fast enough that this is not happening.

- In 1897 the electron was discovered as an elementary particle that carries a negative charge. In 1898 the electron was predicted to have a counter part, named a positron. 30 years later Paul Dirac came up with the mathematics that made the same prediction. Dirac extended this prediction to all the elementary particles. There are 16 particles so there must be 16 antiparticles that make up the Universe. ( 6 quarks, 6 leptons and 4 bosons).

- In 1931 Carl Anderson discovered the anti-electron in a cloud chamber while studying the fall out from Cosmic Rays. The anti-proton was discovered in 1955. Symmetry in anti-matter requires that it react the exact same as matter. Anti-water would freeze and boil at the same temperature. The spectrum of light coming from an anti-matter galaxy would look exactly the same as a matter galaxy.

- In 1957 it was discovered that neutrinos spin only left-handedly and anti-neutrinos spin only right-handedly. In 1964 it was discovered that the particle K-Meson did not decay into Pions at the same rate as anti-K-Mesons. A Meson is a particle that contains one quark and one anti-quark. Pions and Mesons are affected by the Strong Nuclear Force and the force carriers, Gluons.

- This symmetry breaking, or charge-parity breaking, indicated that matter and anti-matter would not annihilate each other in equal proportions. Today this data has the confidence of 0.005% accuracy. Science is cautious and requires a high level of certainty before claiming a discovery. They are looking for 0.00005 % certainty from these experiments. This could explain why the Universe contains a preponderance of matter over anti-matter.

- In 2001 it was discovered that the B-Meson followed the same pattern of different decay rates. In 2010 the same charge-parity violation or symmetry breaking was found in Muons and anti-Muons. Muons are heavy electrons, or high energy electrons.

- Small amounts of anti-matter occur naturally in the decay of radioactive isotopes. Recent discoveries have detected anti-matter production in lighting strikes and high thunder clouds. High energy Cosmic Rays impacting the Earth’s atmosphere produce minute quantities of anti-particles. The same thing must be happening in other solar systems and in other galaxies.

- Anti-matter radiation has been detected coming from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. When electrons and anti-electrons annihilate each other in a flash of Gamma Rays the energy level is exactly 511,000 electron volts. This is calculated from E = m*c^2 for 2 electrons. Astronomers speculate that ordinary matter gains tremendous energy when falling into stars and Blackholes near the galaxy core. This energy produces electron-anti-electron pairs that exist then annihilate each other producing the Gamma Rays at 511,000 electron volts.
　
- Small amounts of anti-matter are produced unnaturally in our laboratories. In 2008 anti-electrons were produced by firing ultra-intense lasers and millimeter -thick gold targets. In 1995 anti-hydrogen was first produced and in April 2011 CERN successfully trapped 309 anti-hydrogen atoms for 1000 seconds ( 17 minutes ). They also detected the production of anti-helium atoms.

- There is a problem in how to contain anti-matter once it is produced. It has to be contained in some form of magnetic, electric, or laser trap. If it touches any material “pooofff “ its gone. Therefore it is very expensive to make, about $250,000,000 for 10 milligrams of anti-electrons.

- These anti-electrons are needed to run the medical PET scans. PET is Positron Emission Tomography that allows doctors to see inside the body similar to X-rays.

- Anti-matter and matter collisions would be a great source of energy if we could harness them. It is 10 orders of magnitude greater than chemical energy, 3 orders greater than nuclear fission reactions, and 2 orders of magnitude greater than fusion reactions. A kilogram of each would produce an equivalent to 43 megatons of TNT.

- America’s education and main-media system is a failure. The result of a good liberal education is that you can communicate anti-science very convincingly. Students have lost the power of critical thinking. They confuse the right to an opinion with the fictitious right to be right. Journalists think that balance is the same as fairness. In science only the right answer and the truth matters. Evolution, global warming, vaccinations do not need a “balanced” report, they need good science. Television portrays science as “Punkin Chunkin”, “Mantracker“, “Nostradamus Effect“, or “Ancient Aliens“. Like homeopathic medicine this is no better than plain water and sweet-talk and not true science.

- Anti-matter and anti-science annihilate matter and what matters. We can do better.

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(1) Review #1149 “ Why does matter outnumber anti-matter?”
(2) Review # 971 “ Anti-matter”
(3) Review # 891 “ Living with anti-matter”
(4) Review #730 “ Antimatter”
(5) Review # 607 “ Antimatter is all around us”
(6) Review # 880 “ Antimatter and Blackholes”
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707-536-3272, Wednesday, July 13, 2011