For the first time, Northwestern University physicists have coaxed a single positron — the antimatter counterpart of an electron — into an exquisitely controlled quantum state.
An electron meeting a positron will apparently release 1.022 MeV of energy. I’m no physicist but my understanding is that this isn’t huge (it converts to 1.637×10⁻¹³ Joules). For comparison, fission of a uranium-235 nucleus releases about 200 MeV.
There’s a medical test called a PET scan, with PET standing for Positron Emission Tomography. Yes, positron as in antimatter. How it works is the subject is injected with a radioactive substance that decays into antimatter. That antimatter reacts with the normal matter in the subject’s body releasing photons. Those photons are then observed by the scanner which builds up a useful picture from them.
Now, I’m not sure how much antimatter is generated in the subject’s body, but it’s a hell of a lot more than a single positron. And it all annihilates within the subject who doesn’t notice a thing. So a single positron is not going to generate much of a bang.
An electron meeting a positron will apparently release 1.022 MeV of energy. I’m no physicist but my understanding is that this isn’t huge (it converts to 1.637×10⁻¹³ Joules). For comparison, fission of a uranium-235 nucleus releases about 200 MeV.
ELI5
A zap like a fly in an electrical flytrap or more like a small firecracker?
you’d need several dozen, maybe a hundred uranium nuclei doing fission at once to knock over a coarse grain of sand.
There’s a medical test called a PET scan, with PET standing for Positron Emission Tomography. Yes, positron as in antimatter. How it works is the subject is injected with a radioactive substance that decays into antimatter. That antimatter reacts with the normal matter in the subject’s body releasing photons. Those photons are then observed by the scanner which builds up a useful picture from them.
Now, I’m not sure how much antimatter is generated in the subject’s body, but it’s a hell of a lot more than a single positron. And it all annihilates within the subject who doesn’t notice a thing. So a single positron is not going to generate much of a bang.
you wouldn’t feel it