Anti-matter falls down, just like matter
The uncertainty of science: In a difficult particle physics experiment that carries large margins for error, scientists have determined that gravity appears to affect anti-matter the same as matter.
Quantitatively, the experiment indicates that antimatter experiences a pull from gravity that’s 75% as strong as that on ordinary matter, give or take 20%—a statistical agreement between the two. Hangst says 99.9% of physicists would have predicted the result. Still, he notes, “You have to do the experiment with an open mind.”
One must understand that, at atomic levels, the influence of gravity is practically nil. Extracting a measurment of its influence outside the other more powerful forces that dominate atomic particles, magnetism, the weak force, and the strong force, is difficult, to put it mildly.
The key is that the experiment result showed some influence of gravity, in the expected direction.
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The uncertainty of science: In a difficult particle physics experiment that carries large margins for error, scientists have determined that gravity appears to affect anti-matter the same as matter.
Quantitatively, the experiment indicates that antimatter experiences a pull from gravity that’s 75% as strong as that on ordinary matter, give or take 20%—a statistical agreement between the two. Hangst says 99.9% of physicists would have predicted the result. Still, he notes, “You have to do the experiment with an open mind.”
One must understand that, at atomic levels, the influence of gravity is practically nil. Extracting a measurment of its influence outside the other more powerful forces that dominate atomic particles, magnetism, the weak force, and the strong force, is difficult, to put it mildly.
The key is that the experiment result showed some influence of gravity, in the expected direction.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Interesting . . .
I cannot claim to have given all that much thought to antimatter. I had simply assumed, perhaps due to science fiction, that it was essentially a complete opposite to “ordinary” matter.
Much of the article is over my head, but if I am surprised that antimatter reacts to gravity as described. I guess I would have assumed that it would react in EXACTLY the same way as does matter, or not react at all.
Thank you, Bob!
I question the theory that their was an almost equal amount of matter and anti-mater during the big boom.
It almost pure speculation.
As our detection equipment like telescopes gets better we are constantly correcting our old observations.
This is one of the big problems with the big bang theory… matter and anti matter should have been created in equal amounts .. perhaps some of the galaxies we see out there are entirely made of anti matter… ( And their inhabitants consider our matter to be anti matter! )
Or perhaps the whole big bang theory is wrong ( more likely in my opinion )
This seems more an endorsement of the certainty of science.
Lee S observed (along with many, many, others):
” . . . matter and anti-matter should have been created in equal amounts . . .”
Why?
We already know that the putative ‘Big Bang’ was an uneven event, viz Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation surveys. If the observed result is an uneven radiation distribution, why do we assume the event itself was evenly distributed, or even capable of such?
Why do we think 95%+ of the universe is missing?
What if only 5% is missing and the rest is just to far away to see yet?