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Is Anti-Matter repelled by gravity?

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
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Or in the Einstein sense does anti-matter curve space in the opposite direction?

I've always thought so, it made logical sense. And for decades scientists were looking for a mysterious anti-gravity source out there needed to explain how the universe appears to be working but they never wanted to attribute it to anti-matter.

Does Antimatter Fall Upward? | Through the Wormhole | Discovery Science

Now it seems some are finally coming around to the idea anti-matter naturally repels regular matter.
 

Al Johnson

Northwoods Hillbilly
VIP
The question still remains as far as I know: What happened to all the antimatter? Theory says that the original quantities were equal, but now almost everything is regular matter. Where did it go?
 

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
VIP
Gravity is relatively weak it doesn't govern the movement of particles. I do wonder if it's possible entire galaxies are made of anti-matter. I wonder if we would detect it.
 

mojokat

coma toast
VIP
Gravity is not weak because smaller objects are attracted to larger objects even light years away, and their respective gravitational fields are independent of it.
 

BirdOPrey5

Staff member
Administrator
VIP
Gravity is not weak because smaller objects are attracted to larger objects even light years away, and their respective gravitational fields are independent of it.
There are 4 fundamental forces in physics and gravity is the weakest one, that's what I meant.

Why is gravity the strongest force? | Science Questions with Surprising Answers

Actually, gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental forces. Ordered from strongest to weakest, the forces are 1) the strong nuclear force, 2) the electromagnetic force, 3) the weak nuclear force, and 4) gravity. If you take two protons and hold them very close together, they will exert several forces on each other. Because they both have mass, the two protons exert gravitational attraction on each other. Because they both have a positive electric charge, they both exert electromagnetic repulsion on each other. Also, they both have internal "color" charge and thus exert attraction via the strong nuclear force. Because the strong nuclear force is the strongest at short distances, it dominates over the other forces and the two protons become bound, forming a helium nucleus (typically a neutron is also needed to keep the helium nucleus stable). Gravity is so weak at the atomic scale that scientists can typically ignore it without incurring significant errors in their calculations.
 
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