Essay on “Anti-Matter” Complete Essay for Class 9, Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Anti-Matter

The matter, which is known to us posses negatively, charged electrons circling positively charged nuclei. Anti-matter contains positively charged electrons – positrons — moving around nuclei with a negative charge – anti-protons. Only anti-protons and positrons can be produced at this time, but scientists in Switzerland have begun a series of experiments, which they believe will lead to the creation of the first anti-matter element, which they termed as Anti-Hydrogen. The Research Early scientists often made two mistakes about anti-matter. Some thought it had a negative mass and would thus feel gravity as a push rather than a pull. If this  were so, the antiproton’s negative mass/energy would cancel the protons when they met and nothing would remain; in reality, two extremely high-energy gamma photons are produced. Today’s theories of the universe say that there is no such thing as a negative mass. The second and subtler mistake is the thought that anti-water would only destroy ordinary water, and could safely be kept in (say) an iron container which is not so. it is the subatomic particles that react so destructively, and their arrangement makes no difference.

At CERN in Geneva scientists are working on a device called the LEAR (low energy anti-proton ring) in an attempt to slow the velocity of the anti-protons to a billionth of their normal speeds. The retarding of the anti-protons and positrons, which normally travel at a velocity of that near the speed of light, is necessary so that they have a chance of meeting and combining into anti-hydrogen. The problems with research in the field of anti-matter is that when the anti-matter elements touch matter elements they annihilate each other. The total combined mass of both elements are released in a spectacular blast of energy. Electrons and positrons come together and vanish into high-energy gamma rays (plus acertain number of harmless neutrinos, which  pass through whole planets without effect). Hitting ordinary matter, 1 kg of anti-matter explodes with the force of up to 43 million tons of TNT – as though several thousand Hiroshima bombs were detonated at once. So how can anti-matter be stored? Space seems the only place, both for storage and for large-scale production. On Earth , gravity will sooner or later pull any anti-matter into disastrous contact with matter. Anti-matter has the opposite effect of gravity on it; the anti-matter is ‘pushed away’ by the gravitational force due to its opposite nature to that of matter. Although the antimatter did not posses any charge, still anti-neutrons differ from neutrons in having an opposite ‘spin’ and ‘baryon number’. All heavy particles, like protons or neutrons, are called baryons. A firm rule is that the total baryon number cannot change, though this apparently fails inside black holes. A proton and anti-proton (baryon number -1) can join together in an annihilation of both. The two heavy particles meet in a flare of energy and vanish, their mass converted to high-energy radiation wile their opposite charges and baryon numbers cancel out. We can make antiprotons in the laboratory by turning this process round, using a particle accelerator to smash protons together at such enormous energies that the energy of collision is more than twice the mass/energy of a proton. Anti-matter elements posses similar properties as that of matter. For example, two atoms of anti-hydrogen and one atom of anti-oxygen would become anti-water.

Though anti-matter can be manufactured, slowly, natural anti-matter has never been found. In theory, one can expect equal amounts of matter and anti-matter to be formed at the beginning of the universe – perhaps some far off galaxies are made of anti-matter that somehow became separated from matter long ago. A problem with the theory is that cosmic rays that reach Earth from far-off parts are often made up of protons or even nuclei, never of anti-protons or anti-nuclei. There may be no natural anti-matter i anywhere. In that case, what happened to it? The most obvious answer is that, as predicted by theory, all the matter and anti-matter underwent mutual annihilation in the first seconds of creation; but why then do we still have matter?

Discovering anti-matter could mean the end of the Earth, as we know it. One mistake could mean the end of the world and a release of high-energy gamma rays that could wipe out the life on earth in moments. At this point appears as if it is merely a race to see who can make the first anti-matter element. As research continues into the field of anti-matter there might be some very interesting and practical uses of anti-matter in the world of the future.