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anti-matter

Cmdr Sho

Lieutenant Commander
Red Shirt
So...
What is anti-matter in context of star trek and the non-trek world? How does it work in a starship?
 
From what I understand Anti-Mater(AM) is the opposite of Normal Mater(NM). In an AM molecule of hydrogen for example, the protons would have a negative charge, the electrons would have a positive charge. It would spin the opposite direction... etc etc.

Theoretically when a particle of AM and a particle of NM come in contact, they annihilate each other. This releases an extremely large amount of energy, which in star trek is used to power the warp field and other systems. In the book Angels and Daemons, I believe it was said that this energy could power the east coast for a year before a second AM-NM reaction was needed.
 
Hi, here is a link that explains anti-matter.

In a starship (Romulan), they use the energy emitted from the "Black Hole" or singularity, to power ther ships. (Hawking radiation).

But a "black hole" reactor needs fuel, just like any other reactor. Put matter in, get energy out.

Laws of Thermodynamics, even singularities conform.

Hope that helps
 
So,
AM cobined with NM= extreme power...

Is there AM in real life and if so how is it used or made?

How would this power be compaired with an omega molocule? Could (in theroy) omega molocules be used as some kind of power source even though they destroy space (or is it subspace)?
 
So,
AM cobined with NM= extreme power...

Is there AM in real life and if so how is it used or made?

How would this power be compaired with an omega molocule? Could (in theroy) omega molocules be used as some kind of power source even though they destroy space (or is it subspace)?

There's lots of antimatter in real life. Lots of the universe might be antimatter. We're not sure if regular matter dominates or, if it does, why that would be exactly. We can produce small amounts of it in laboratories by various means, but are not yet able to make lots of the stuff like in Trek.

The Omega molecule isn't a concept that made a whole lot of sense to me. I suppose it could be used as a power source based on what we saw of it, but you've got the destruction of subspace as an issue. Some dialogue made it sound like it somehow provided power just by virtue of its existence, but I didn't get this; if it's a molecule they'd have to synthesize it (as shown), and wouldn't the cost be at best equal to the yield? I guess it has some strange property that causes the energy release per unit time to be very high...I don't know. There's nothing much like this in reality, anyway.
 
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I see your point on the Omega molocule. There has to be some other factor in play with that.... As for AM it is interesting that it does exist in real life!!! But I wounder what uses there are for it... Maybe Memory Alpha would have aditional info on it.... But it might be classified to all but captains and above.... Might want to check that out anyway...
 
Hi, here is a link that explains anti-matter.

In a starship (Romulan), they use the energy emitted from the "Black Hole" or singularity, to power ther ships. (Hawking radiation).

But a "black hole" reactor needs fuel, just like any other reactor. Put matter in, get energy out.

Laws of Thermodynamics, even singularities conform.

Hope that helps

I don't think they specifically need fuel. As I recall, virtual particles which form near the event horizon of a black hole do not self-annihilate as they do in open space; the intense gravitation of the black hole draws the opposite charges of virtual particles apart, causing Hawking radiation and the gradual annihilation of black holes ("evaporation"). Romulans might be able to use the Hawking radiation as a power source, effectively treating a black hole as a battery with extraordinary storage density.
 
Not specifically. What happens is when the virtual particles split, the negative component falls into the event horizon while a photon escapes. It's a fundamental feature of quantum mechanics and virtual particles spontaneously form and annihilate all the time with little visible effect (although I think the Cassimer Effect is also related). But things change at an event horizon. I forget why the negative particle is pulled in while the positive escapes, but this is what causes a black hole to potentially lose mass over time. Smaller black holes don't attract enough matter to replace the mass lost to the negative particles and they slowly shrink. I expect that once they get small enough they go off with a nice, big bang.

At least, that's what happened to a research station I had built around a primordial black hole for a Star Trek: The Role Playing Game session a very long time ago ... Tholians accelerated the process and forced the players to evacuate the station before the black hole went up like a gamma ray burst. Not everyone made it, sadly.
 
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