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From: Craig.Everhart@CMU-CS-A.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.physics
Subject: Re: Anti-Matter -> Anti-Energy??
Message-ID: <1131@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 23-May-84 14:13:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.1131
Posted: Wed May 23 14:13:00 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jun-84 03:42:36 EDT
Lines: 22

What's there to know?  There are two species of each kind of particle.
When one of them occurs ``naturally'' (e.g. in abundance in this universe, or
at least on this planet) we unambiguously call it a particle, and its
conjugate an anti-particle.  Other pairs are named more or less by convention.
You can make atoms out of anti-particles just fine, if you have enough of
them--positrons circling a nucleus made up of anti-protons and anti-neutrons.
When a particle and its conjugate (the ``anti-particle'') come within range
of one another, they can annihilate one another to produce energy.
Conversely, if momentum is conserved, a photon of sufficient energy can
produce two oppositely-conjugated particles, one of which we call a particle
and the other of which we call an anti-particle.

You've invented a word (``anti-energy'') by a word game.  How would it behave?
Presumably, you think that turning ``anti-matter'' to energy would result in
``anti-energy.''  What would its properties be?  Would it annihilate regular
old energy and produce some kind of matter?  If there were people made of
anti-matter (in some other galaxy, say) would they have anti-ideas rather than
ideas?  If one of them baked a cake, would their ovens be anti-hot rather than
hot?  Would they experience anti-gravity rather than gravity?  (Actually,as
I understand it, a definite no to the last question; antiparticles and
particles share gravitational attraction, just as they share a concept of
mass.)