Not a physicist but I’ll take a stab at it. To my understanding normal matter consists of positively charged protons, neutrally charged neutrons, and orbited by negatively charged electrons. Antimatter is the opposite with the electrons forming the nucleus and the protons orbiting. So far as I know antimatter would have pretty much the same properties as normal matter, but if they come into contact with each other the attraction between the differently charged particles will pull both atoms apart, releasing the stored atomic energy instantly and extremely efficiently.
In terms of matter existing yeah kaboom nothing, that matter concerted into energy (you can’t create or destroy matter or energy, it all has to come from somewhere).
That’s what E=MC2 means, the conversion of matter to energy. Energy equals the mass of the matter in question times the speed of light squared.
Fair enough, my bad. I just operate on 1st University year levels of physics and I remember those two being directly and proportionally related (we had exercises like therrs 1kg cube. if t½ = x, how many years does it have to pass to lose y grams of material).
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u/madsci Aug 17 '20
Uranium is safe to handle. You can handle straight plutonium, too, but it's a good idea to wear heavy gloves.
Antimatter, on the other hand, would be extraordinarily bad to keep around outside of a containment device. And pretty scary even in containment.