Antimatter: Discovery, Origin, Energy
Antimatter
Dec. 1, 2005 Antimatter is a large subject which is covered through all the science fields. Antimatter or antiparticles is often called the "mirror image" of ordinary matter. For every type of ordinary matter particle, an antimatter particle can be created that is identical in characteristics except for an opposite electric charge and some other properties like magnetic moment. While staying with the topic of astronomy, this paper will describe the discovery of antimatter, the origins of antimatter, and antimatter as energy.
To describe antimatter we must first look at the history in its discovery. The history of discovering antimatter begins in 1929 by the proposal of an English Physicist named Paul Dirac. In attempting to combine quantum mechanics with special relativity to describe the behavior of an electron, he found that the solutions of the equation which showed that if matter is created from energy then an equal amount of antimatter is also created. For example, the equation, X squared equals four can have two possible solutions (X equals two) or (X equals negative two.) Dirac's equation proves two possible solutions, one for an electron with positive energy, and one for an electron with negative energy. This showed that for every proton in the universe there should be an antiproton or a proton with a negative charge, for every electron there’s a anti-electron or an electron identical in everyway but with a positive charge, and every neutron there’s a antiparticle called an antineutron. The combined theory was called the Quantum field theory. From 1930, the hunt for the mysterious antiparticles began. A scientist named Victor Hess had discovered a natural source of high energy particles called cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are very high energy particles that come from outer space and as they hit the Earth's atmosphere they produce huge showers of lower energy particles that have proved very useful to physicists. In 1932 Carl Anderson, a
Dec. 1, 2005 Antimatter is a large subject which is covered through all the science fields. Antimatter or antiparticles is often called the "mirror image" of ordinary matter. For every type of ordinary matter particle, an antimatter particle can be created that is identical in characteristics except for an opposite electric charge and some other properties like magnetic moment. While staying with the topic of astronomy, this paper will describe the discovery of antimatter, the origins of antimatter, and antimatter as energy.
To describe antimatter we must first look at the history in its discovery. The history of discovering antimatter begins in 1929 by the proposal of an English Physicist named Paul Dirac. In attempting to combine quantum mechanics with special relativity to describe the behavior of an electron, he found that the solutions of the equation which showed that if matter is created from energy then an equal amount of antimatter is also created. For example, the equation, X squared equals four can have two possible solutions (X equals two) or (X equals negative two.) Dirac's equation proves two possible solutions, one for an electron with positive energy, and one for an electron with negative energy. This showed that for every proton in the universe there should be an antiproton or a proton with a negative charge, for every electron there’s a anti-electron or an electron identical in everyway but with a positive charge, and every neutron there’s a antiparticle called an antineutron. The combined theory was called the Quantum field theory. From 1930, the hunt for the mysterious antiparticles began. A scientist named Victor Hess had discovered a natural source of high energy particles called cosmic rays. Cosmic rays are very high energy particles that come from outer space and as they hit the Earth's atmosphere they produce huge showers of lower energy particles that have proved very useful to physicists. In 1932 Carl Anderson, a