The Neverending List of Questions that needs Answering

[Mefiante]

If you apply a constant force to a lump of antimatter at rest, will it go even slower 

I’m going to assume this question is serious because some people have such an idea.  If it isn’t, please indulge me.  To the best of our current understanding, matter and antimatter are indistinguishable by inertial means.  However, there is a school of thought that proposes an ever-so-tiny difference in inertial behaviour between matter and antimatter — so tiny that it cannot be measured by present means.  If true, the proposal would aid in explaining the universe’s (apparent) asymmetry in terms of matter vs. antimatter.  This difference would be especially telling at the very early stages of the Big Bang.

'Luthon64

[cyghost]

Why is the antimatter resting? 'Tis lazy?

[Mefiante]

Why is the antimatter resting? 'Tis lazy?

Again I’ll proceed from the perhaps erroneous assumption that this question is at least partway serious.  You must not read “inertia,” “inertial” and so on as referring to “a state of rest.” (According to which frame of reference is this “state of rest” to be judged anyway?)  Rather, read “inertia,” etc. as indicating the resistance to a change in the state of (uniform) motion a ponderable mass offers, as per Newton’s second law.

'Luthon64

[Rigil Kent]

Why is the antimatter resting? 'Tis lazy?

Or tired.

.. matter and antimatter are indistinguishable by inertial means.

I must admit to being a bit dissapointed to learn that something as exotic as antimatter shares some of the same mundane properties as a house brick or a wonder bra. In a recent movie they kept the stuff in a special tube hovering in mid air, for Pete's sake! So what exactly is so "anti" about it?

Mintaka

[BoogieMonster]

Afaik (risking a smackdown by Mefiante), you have to keep the stuff suspended mid air by strong magnetic fields or it will annihilate any "normal" matter upon contact. (Or put another way, they destroy each other)

[Mefiante]

When a particle of a given type encounters a corresponding antiparticle, they mutually annihilate and all of their combined mass is converted into energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation (photons) according to Einstein’s famous E = mc² equivalence.  For this reason, antimatter must be kept shielded from all ordinary matter, including air, which means keeping it suspended or circulating in a vacuum.  This can only be achieved via magnetic fields in the case where the antimatter has an electric charge.  The energy release involved is huge: half a milligram of matter brought together with half a milligram of corresponding antimatter will release enough energy to power a 2 kW heater continuously for about 520 days.

'Luthon64

[Mefiante]

What does “Meh.” raised to the 14^th power come to?

'Luthon64

[BoogieMonster]

Mehth-amphetamine.

(click to show/hide)

Yes, I am going to hell.

[Mefiante]

LOL!  A failed psychostimulant, then.  How apt.  As for your spoiler, I’m right alongside you there — or so I’ve been assured on numerous occasions.

I think I need a Mehdivac.

'Luthon64

[Lurkie]

What does “Meh.” raised to the 14th power come to? 

Meh to the power of 14 = Canadian.

[Brian]

what is the shape of the Universe?