4 ms·

I wonder what would happen if you had a solid piece of antimatter, say a gram of anti-iron... and just set it down. Would it really annihaliate immediately on

I wonder what would happen if you had a solid piece of antimatter, say a gram of anti-iron... and just set it down. Would it really annihaliate immediately on contact with air, a lab table, or anything... or would the normal forces that keep us from falling through things still be in effect? Either nothing would happen, or like molten salt in water, the joule currents would be instant and drive it all to go boom in a big way. I wonder which.

estimator7292 7mo ago
The charges are inverted, so anti-protons are actively attracted to protons. It would immediately explode.
- munchler 7mo ago
  I think OP is proposing a lump of antimatter with no net electric charge. My guess is that even in this case the lump’s positrons would immediately interact with the table’s electrons and explode.
- dyauspitr 7mo ago
  Even without charge attraction, say anti-neutrons (I don’t know the term) would instantly resolve because neutrons are everywhere.
  - scotty79 7mo ago
    Free neutorns are everywhere? Why? I think they live only about 10 minutes outside of nuclei.
    - dyauspitr 7mo ago
      Still, I don’t think they need to be free. The antimatter will just react with the ones in the nuclei. I don’t know much about any of this but it seems likely.
andrewflnr 7mo ago
I'm not sure I ever got a straight answer about whether the reason we don't fall through things is actually Pauli exclusion or electrostatic repulsion, but I'm pretty sure even Pauli exclusion won't apply to different kinds of particles trying to occupy the same space. And electrostatic repulsion definitely won't work to keep electrons and positrons apart. I think the positrons and electrons in the outer shells would make contact instantly, and everything would unravel from there.