Magnetic Bottles
Most recent answer: 10/22/2007
Q:
How is antimatter stored?
- Michael
Australia
- Michael
Australia
A:
Michael,
Just like normal matter, anti-matter sometimes consists of particles that have charges. And when a charged particle passes through a magnetic field, the direction it is moving will be changed by the field. It is possible to set up magnets so that these types of particle basically gets stuck.
The simplest version of this is to set up magnets in a vacuum so that if a charged particle comes into their field it will move in a circle. The reason this has to be set up in a vacuum is so that there is nothing, not even air molecules, for the anti-matter particle to run into. This type of set up is usually called a magnetic bottle and would be able to contain anti-matter.
Tim
Just like normal matter, anti-matter sometimes consists of particles that have charges. And when a charged particle passes through a magnetic field, the direction it is moving will be changed by the field. It is possible to set up magnets so that these types of particle basically gets stuck.
The simplest version of this is to set up magnets in a vacuum so that if a charged particle comes into their field it will move in a circle. The reason this has to be set up in a vacuum is so that there is nothing, not even air molecules, for the anti-matter particle to run into. This type of set up is usually called a magnetic bottle and would be able to contain anti-matter.
Tim
(published on 10/22/2007)