# Are anti-matter bombs a credible threat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 25, 2009, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-anti-matter-bombs-a-credible-threat/500954 "2009-06-25T16:43:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-anti-matter-bombs-a-credible-threat/500954/41 "2009-06-26T19:55:52Z")
> [@](#): > > Couldn’t you just create a lot of anti-matter at the same time you created a lot of matter, for a net energy cost of zero? Disclaimer: I have no idea what I’m talking about. No. Antimatter has everything else reversed from matter, but it has positive mass just like normal matter. So to produce 1 gram of matter at the same time as 1 gram of antimatter, you’d need to expend energy equivalent to 2 grams, not 0 grams. There is a lot of speculation about hypothetical substances which would have negative mass, but nobody’s ever been able to find or produce any, and if it existed, it’d have some extremely weird properties. The best guess is that they don’t and can’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-anti-matter-bombs-a-credible-threat/500954/42 "2009-06-27T05:20:15Z")
This thread is great. It’s like 1 part conspiracy theory 1 part serious physics. ---
**Author:** ![Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Full\_Metal\_Lotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Full_Metal_Lotus)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-anti-matter-bombs-a-credible-threat/500954/43 "2009-06-27T06:45:34Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Presumably, this is the same simple process that turns Lead into Gold, right? You can find the instruction for “ **Lead into Gold - _the easy way_**!” on the back of each package of Unobtainium… ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-anti-matter-bombs-a-credible-threat/500954/44 "2009-06-27T11:45:20Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > This thread is great. It’s like 1 part conspiracy theory 1 part serious physics. Its three parts actually. You arent in on it I take it ?🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-anti-matter-bombs-a-credible-threat/500954/45 "2009-06-27T17:07:59Z")
So, what happens when you have pasta and anti-pasto collide? ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-anti-matter-bombs-a-credible-threat/500954/46 "2009-06-27T23:41:13Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > So, what happens when you have pasta and anti-pasto collide? You can eat all you want and not get fat. 🆒 **billfish** I guess I’m not. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-anti-matter-bombs-a-credible-threat/500954/47 "2009-06-27T23:54:31Z")
> [@SmashTheState](#): > > Everyone is assuming that we’re dealing with currently-available, widely-known technology. Firstly, even though it doesn’t exist today, some day it will. And secondly, if shadowy military defence contractors have developed stable anti-matter technology, who’s to say they haven’t also developed miniaturized magnetic bottles or ambient-temperature superconductors. Come on, man. You can do this thing all day - imagine whatever shadowy organizations you like, with whatever magical technology you like, with whatever near-Godlike ability to cover it all up that you like. If you do that, there’s not a darned thing we can do to disprove your conspiracy theory - you can always posit “well, what if the Bad Guys have magical ability X?” But that’s not how you analyze the world in any sort of useful way. You look at the information that’s available - and there is _no_ information out there that suggest antimatter weapons are anywhere even remotely close to being on the horizon. For that matter, there’s no indication that anyone particularly _wants_ an antimatter weapon. For reasons ably described by other others, nukes are already far more than good enough for our purposes. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2009, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-anti-matter-bombs-a-credible-threat/500954/48 "2009-06-28T02:15:33Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > . For reasons ably described by other others, nukes are already far more than good enough for our purposes. Well there is one thing antimatter would be great for: if you had a compact containment system, you could use microgram quantities of antimatter for “micronukes”. Picture blowing up a tank with a sniper rifle. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-anti-matter-bombs-a-credible-threat/500954/49 "2009-06-28T21:28:54Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > …nukes are already far more than good enough for our purposes. Especially from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-anti-matter-bombs-a-credible-threat/500954.md?page=2)