- #1
iHaveQuestions88
- 5
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Hi All,
First time poster here, and I've got a couple questions. Straight up, I'm writing a sci-fi story where antimatter is utilised as fuel (feel free to laugh at the cliche), and I want to portray it as realistically as possible. To that end, I've come up with a storage method and I want to see if the math holds up.
So, here are the parameters:
First time poster here, and I've got a couple questions. Straight up, I'm writing a sci-fi story where antimatter is utilised as fuel (feel free to laugh at the cliche), and I want to portray it as realistically as possible. To that end, I've come up with a storage method and I want to see if the math holds up.
So, here are the parameters:
- assume you have exactly one kilogram of antimatter
- assume the entire mass uniformly consists of anti-Alpha particles (nuclei of 2 antiprotons and 2 antineutrons)
- assume this mass is contained in a vessel with an electromagnetic field powerful enough to suspend the total mass from coming into contact with any other matter
- assume that the vessel is equipped with an internal reaction chamber that has a source of normal Alpha particles, and that the vessel is continuously drawing Alphas and anti-Alphas into this chamber at a consistent rate
- assume the annihilation energy released in this reaction chamber is fully converted to electrical energy and used to power the electromagnetic field to contain the remaining mass
- how much energy in joules per second would be needed to maintain a containment field strong enough to maintain the repulsive forces necessary to keep the antimatter contained?
- based on that, what would the rate of consumption of stored antimatter in metric mass units per hour have to be to make that much energy?