• Question: What are you trying to learn from antimatter?

    Asked by anon-226397 to Sameed on 11 Nov 2019. This question was also asked by anon-226301, anon-225798.
    • Photo: Sameed Muhammed

      Sameed Muhammed answered on 11 Nov 2019:

      Particles of antimatter are just like particles of matter. For example, an anti-electron has the same mass as the electron. But it has opposite charge (electron is negatively charged so anti-electron is positively charged). Funny thing is that when electron touches anti-electron, they both annihilate and produce a tiny amount of energy (E = mc^2)!

      All of the above I have said is true, but the funny thing is that when the Big Bang happened, it should have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter, and all of it should have annihilated with each other by now. But our universe is mostly matter (and very very very little antimatter). By studying antimatter in the lab, we are trying to find out what happened, and where is all the rest of the antimatter!

      I hope this makes some sense. Feel free to ask a follow-up question for more details 🙂

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