RE: Antimatter: ISOLATED!
November 21, 2010 at 11:45 am
(This post was last modified: November 21, 2010 at 11:52 am by Welsh cake.)
(November 21, 2010 at 8:58 am)Chuck Wrote: I thought they made hydrogen atoms which meant a antiproton plus a positron, so the whole the is electrically neutral.Antihydrogen is the counterpart of hydrogen, while hydrogen's particle is positively charged its opposite antimatter has a negatively charged. Antihydrogen has a positive electron (antielectron) and a negatively charged positron (antiproton).
Antihydrogen's electron has the same size and weight as Hydrogen's electron, it is perfectly stable, the only difference is the two, antimatter and matter, have opposite charges.
You are confusing antiprotons with anti-neutrons, the antiparticle of a neutron, which is electrically neutral, the only difference is that it spins in an opposite direction.
A hydrogen atom (matter) composes of just one electron and one proton, whereas the antihydrogen atom (antimatter) is made up of only a positron and antiproton. Hydrogen does NOT have a neutron, antihydrogen does NOT have a anti-neutron.