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[–] 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

An electron meeting a positron will apparently release 1.022 MeV of energy. I'm no physicist but my understanding is that this isn't huge (it converts to 1.637×10⁻¹³ Joules). For comparison, fission of a uranium-235 nucleus releases about 200 MeV.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    ELI5

    A zap like a fly in an electrical flytrap or more like a small firecracker?

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  • [–] 8 points 1 week ago

    There's a medical test called a PET scan, with PET standing for Positron Emission Tomography. Yes, positron as in antimatter. How it works is the subject is injected with a radioactive substance that decays into antimatter. That antimatter reacts with the normal matter in the subject's body releasing photons. Those photons are then observed by the scanner which builds up a useful picture from them.

    Now, I'm not sure how much antimatter is generated in the subject's body, but it's a hell of a lot more than a single positron. And it all annihilates within the subject who doesn't notice a thing. So a single positron is not going to generate much of a bang.

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