• Question: what is matter and anti matter

    Asked by roweblackmore to Ben, Clare, Ezzy, Mario, Sam on 13 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by dukeshepherd, hepworthandsimmons.
    • Photo: Elizabeth Pearson

      Elizabeth Pearson answered on 13 Mar 2012:


      Matter is stuff. Antimatter is also stuff. It’s kind of like the mirror image of matter. It looks the same only backwards. When you bring the two togheter though they ‘enililate’ and you get no matter or antimatter and a whole bunch on energy.

    • Photo: Clare Burrage

      Clare Burrage answered on 13 Mar 2012:


      Matter is you and me and all the stuff that’s around us and all the particles (electrons, protons…) that make us up. Physics tells us that each of these particles has a mirror image particle with the same mass but the opposite charge, the antimatter image of an electron is called a positron.
      One of the big mysteries about our universe is why it seems to be made up only of matter, and not antimatter. No one knows the answer to this yet!

    • Photo: Ben Smart

      Ben Smart answered on 13 Mar 2012:


      Matter is what we and everything around us is made of. Antimatter is like matters evil twin. If matter and antimatter ever meet then they destroy each other.

      Technically, if you have a particle of matter, then it’s antimatter ‘twin’ will be identical to it except that it will have opposite electrical charge and opposite ‘spin’. (‘Spin’ is just something particles have. It’s a bit like a ball spinning in the air.) So if a matter particle has positive electrical charge and spins in one direction, it’s antimatter twin will have electrical negative charge and will spin in the opposite direction.

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