Eli5 what is anti matter?
In: 158
In the universe, everything can be broken down to basic particles, and there‘s like 17 of them (I think). Basically all matter consists of up-quarks (charge 2/3), down-quarks (charge -1/3) and electrons (charge -1).
All those particles have an electric charge.* That just is a feature of those. And all particles are described by a mathematical equation.
That equation has a loophole: Having the same particle with the exactly opposite charge is also allowed. So, since that equation is really really good at describing reality, those particles with flipped charge really exist. Those are called anti-particles. And if you only consider those anti-particles interacting, they do that the same way as our matter would***. So three antiquarks could form a anti-proton with charge -1, and if you add a anti-electron** with charge +1, you get anti-hydrogen.
But, if you throw together one particle and its one antiparticle, then something really cool happens: They both annihilate each other! Producing a lot of energy, since energy is conserved in the universe.
*Not all of them. Some (like photons of light) are chargeless and have no anti-particle, and the ones called neutrino are chargeless but have anti-particles.
**Called Positron. They are generated on earth kinda regularly, by one form of radioactivity. Bananas emit these.
***You may also have to flip left and right and make time go backwards. The universe is very weird in what symmetries are allowed.
Latest Answers