Mastodawn

Talya (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️✡️

CERN just managed to transport antimatter via truck, and people are asking what happens if it gets into an accident. the answer is... a car accident.

the energy equivalence of antimatter is huge — 10¹⁷J/kg, but the amount is tiny — 92 protons. it's so tiny that if i placed all 92 in your hand, the destruction and release of energy would feel less warm than mere sunlight, by a factor of at least a few thousands.

i'd be more worried about the 2-ton magnetic containment machine in that truck.

I would say it would be cool if we were to find out how to store massive amounts of antimatter, but then I would realize it would just be a bomb

Talya (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️✡️1d ago

@burnoutqueen well yeah, but any energy store is a bomb depending on how fast the energy gets released. fuel tanks. batteries. radioactive materials. in some cases it's hard to reach bomb levels (i don't think you can turn most biological material into a bomb EDIT: no i'm wrong, you definitely can), but it's often easier than you think.

✧✦Catherine✦✧1d ago

@Yuvalne @burnoutqueen methane-producing bacteria + enclosed space :3

@whitequark @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen or an alcohol still

✧✦Catherine✦✧1d ago

@cinebox @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen i was thinking of something entirely biological, i feel if you're allowed adding weirdly shaped metal it's not even challenging

@whitequark @cinebox @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen how much can you scale up a bombardier beetle? 🤔

@whitequark @cinebox @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen reading the couple above messages, and thinking... Fuel-air explosives, also known as thermobaric weapons. You disperse something flammable (gas, flour, metal dust) into the air, via any means you have at your disposal (military ones often use primary explosion, but a bellow will do), and shortly after, when you have a nice dense cloud of it, you provide ignition.
WHOOOOOMPH 💥
No weirdly shaped metal involved.

Talya (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️✡️23h ago

@whitequark @burnoutqueen yeah i know it's true for some. i was thinking of something like wood. but maybe i'm just not creative enough.

NotBlackMagic 20h ago

@Yuvalne @whitequark @burnoutqueen Sawdust can explode.
(Eucalyptus trees as well, arguably.)

Talya (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️✡️20h ago

@CASSCFenjoyer @whitequark @burnoutqueen and like i suspected, i just wasn't creative enough.

@Yuvalne @CASSCFenjoyer @whitequark @burnoutqueen Flour mill with the perfect flour dust/air mix 🙂

Brad Macpherson 15h ago

@CASSCFenjoyer @Yuvalne @whitequark @burnoutqueen Bushfire (or lightning) + old gum tree = loud bang + wood shrapnel + more bushfire

Greyshley 16h ago

@whitequark @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen beached whale moment.

I could see a crazy like Trump bombing Spain with an antimatter bomb because Pedro Sanchez said something he didn't like

@Yuvalne antimatter is the most effective material for a weapon ever designed. It destroys matter on contact, forever

@burnoutqueen @Yuvalne imean uhh kinda ? not really ? fusion bombs are much more effective for way smaller prices afaik

Talya (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️✡️16h ago

@fiore @burnoutqueen
depends on how you define efficient I guess

@burnoutqueen @Yuvalne really like . producing 1kg of antiprotons would be .. god , i dont know . an astronomical endeavour . and that would annihilate 1kg of .. protons ? that are like . in the air . or whatever

not an effective weapon at all

@fiore @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen i think the energy this releases is much more relevant than the matter-antimatter annihilation

@agatha @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen little boy was 75TJ, 1kg of antimatter is at least one order or magnitude less . and thats .. 1kg .. its an absurd amount , science-fictional, even

@agatha @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen actually its 2 orders of magnitude less

@Yuvalne @agatha @burnoutqueen 300MJ to be exact , or 600 i guess

@Yuvalne @agatha @burnoutqueen making 1 single antiproton is already a huge achievement , youd have to make .. yknow.. A Lot ..

@fiore @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen you sure? E = mc², 2kg of matter (and antimatter) releases around 1.8x10^17 J

@agatha @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen didnt square c on my calculator award , youre rigjt im stupid

@fiore @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen don't get me wrong, 1kg of antimatter is completely unreasonable, but it's a lot of energy

@agatha @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen yea youre right i am actually just such a loser physicist that i cant even operate a calculator properly silly me /lh

@fiore @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen tbf it would cost so much to make that much antimatter that it is nonsense

@agatha @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen yea jts insanity , fusion is much more feasible and is already destructive enough for Evil Purposes

@fiore @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen yeah just throw an atomic bomb, the tech already exists anyway

@agatha @fiore @Yuvalne it would take less than a gram (.7 grams or so) of anti matter to release the same energy that the Hiroshima blast did.

@burnoutqueen @agatha @Yuvalne do u know how many antiprptons that is

@fiore @Yuvalne @agatha

A lot

@fiore @Yuvalne @agatha

On the order of 10^23

@burnoutqueen @Yuvalne @agatha yea , not as scifi as 1 whole gram but like . yknow

The Doctor 12h ago

@burnoutqueen @agatha @[email protected] @Yuvalne Under optimal theoretical conditions, yeah.

The Doctor 12h ago

@agatha @[email protected] @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen The energy required is just not happening on earth. Especially these days.

@agatha @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen 1 gram would be like 3 orders of magnitude stronger than littlw boy woah

@Yuvalne @agatha @burnoutqueen although 1 gram is already quite an unachievable goal :P

@fiore @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen yeah we are counting antiprotons... getting to sensible mass is absurd

@agatha @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen still impressive what 0.1 micrograms of antimatter could do !!

The Doctor 12h ago

@agatha @[email protected] @Yuvalne @burnoutqueen Heat and hard gamma rays, yeah.

The Doctor 12h ago

@burnoutqueen @Yuvalne But has a lot of limitations, chiefly, when you drop containment and the first few antibiotics antiparticles annihilate, the released heat throws the remaining antiparticles up and around, spraying them everywhere.

It's more like spraying something with acid than a detonation.

@burnoutqueen @Yuvalne this is in fact the point of BASE, but the tendency of antimatter to annihilate is a good reason to start small.

@burnoutqueen @Yuvalne I have no idea what the plan is for "we'd like to drive our bomb on the highway" but probably about the same as any other time we put dramatic science stuff on the roads

@SnoopJ because it's over here and we want it over there but it's too big for a missile?

@burnoutqueen @Yuvalne

@bweller @SnoopJ @burnoutqueen @Yuvalne
Why wouldn't they just build the bomb where they want to explode it? 😅

@RnDanger @bweller @burnoutqueen @Yuvalne because "a machine that makes antiprotons" in the same way as the Antiproton Decelerator is a rather expensive proposition, especially when the EU *already has one of those*

The Doctor 12h ago

@SnoopJ @burnoutqueen @Yuvalne Those plans are already mature and well understood. Transporting any dangerous material isn't that different, and some of it is way more dangerous than munition-alikes.

🇪🇺 Paul Schoonhoven 🍋🍉1d ago

@Yuvalne I hope they found all 92 back. They were not sure they all would survive. 😇

Talya (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️✡️23h ago

@vosje62 in the test drive all 92 did. now the real drive from Switzerland to Germany.

Cliff'sEsportCorner 1d ago

@Yuvalne I'd be more concerned with the vacuum you'd need to surround me with to get the antimatter on me 🤔

Bebadefabo 1d ago

@Yuvalne are we not worried about a cascade of subatomic particles when the antimatter escapes? I'm less concerned about a big kaboom then I am fissures in quantum energy disrupting things in ways we don't yet understand.

Like, bikini atoll seemed like a good idea: at the time

Talya (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️✡️23h ago

@bebadefabo again, the amount is tiny. 10^-8 joules. even if there is a cascade, it's still much less than that of a single somewhat-powerful cosmic ray.

@Yuvalne I would have been more excited to hear they transported it by starship

crouton 21h ago

@Yuvalne yup, its not the scenario in Angels & Demons (Dan Brown novel / adapted movie) that people might have been thinking of. The density I believe is ~10^17 J / kg though.

Talya (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️✡️20h ago

@crouton yes, my bad! the density is 10^17, but the mass of a proton is 10^-27 (which cancels out to 10^-10 joules per proton).

@Yuvalne yeah, cuz those 2 tons will have way more physics impact than a few Antiprotons...

@Yuvalne they crossed the street! woooo (not sarcastic, I remember that coming up in a Physics Girl video from a few years ago)

Talya (she/her) 🏳️‍⚧️✡️15h ago

@joshg yup! with an eventual goal of proper between-cities transport, which would be really impressive.