Editing 2364: Parity Conservation
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It seems as if Cueball is trying to "hand" Bloody Mary his experimental apparatus either physically (as he is asking her to take the cobalt-60 "before [she] come[s] out of the mirror"), or perhaps by reflecting it onto her side. Because Bloody Mary exists in mirrors, her world is implicitly a mirror of ours. This would allow her to conduct mirror physics experiments, such as whether or not the beta particles leave the cobalt-60 in the same direction as they do in our universe. | It seems as if Cueball is trying to "hand" Bloody Mary his experimental apparatus either physically (as he is asking her to take the cobalt-60 "before [she] come[s] out of the mirror"), or perhaps by reflecting it onto her side. Because Bloody Mary exists in mirrors, her world is implicitly a mirror of ours. This would allow her to conduct mirror physics experiments, such as whether or not the beta particles leave the cobalt-60 in the same direction as they do in our universe. | ||
| β | The title text references {{w|antimatter}}. In physics, antimatter is like a mirrored version of matter | + | The title text references {{w|antimatter}}. In physics, antimatter is like a mirrored version of matter - mirrored in charge, parity, and time - composed of antiparticles rather than particles. Antimatter and matter spontaneously {{w|Annihilation|annihilate}} each other when they meet, releasing extremely high-energy radiation. Therefore, Bloody Mary being made of antimatter explains why she kills people when she comes out of the mirror. (Bloody Mary would also be annihilated in such an interaction, so the fact that she keeps coming back may be attributable to her being a ghost.) |
There have been a lot of science fiction-y stories featuring antimatter people; often, these are duplicates of "regular"-matter people. The stories often show unrealistic ideas of what would happen if matter and antimatter versions of people met. Sometimes, the duplicates simply disappear; sometimes, if the plot requires it only ''one'' may disappear. Or sometimes the entire universe is destroyed. In reality, what would happen is that the matter and antimatter would mutually annihilate, as pairs of subatomic particles, creating enormous radiation and heat. It's likely that only a small fraction of the matter and antimatter would actually come into contact, rather than being propelled apart by the explosion. Indeed, if the duplicates are in their versions of air, the air and anti-air particles would interact first! Even in interstellar space, an antimatter alien would give off significant radiation from collisions with matter particles. In these stories, it's often presumed that the corresponding duplicates of people can annihilate only each other, but can safely touch anything else. In reality, the matching is at the subatomic level: any proton with any antiproton, any electron with any antielectron (or "positron"), etc. | There have been a lot of science fiction-y stories featuring antimatter people; often, these are duplicates of "regular"-matter people. The stories often show unrealistic ideas of what would happen if matter and antimatter versions of people met. Sometimes, the duplicates simply disappear; sometimes, if the plot requires it only ''one'' may disappear. Or sometimes the entire universe is destroyed. In reality, what would happen is that the matter and antimatter would mutually annihilate, as pairs of subatomic particles, creating enormous radiation and heat. It's likely that only a small fraction of the matter and antimatter would actually come into contact, rather than being propelled apart by the explosion. Indeed, if the duplicates are in their versions of air, the air and anti-air particles would interact first! Even in interstellar space, an antimatter alien would give off significant radiation from collisions with matter particles. In these stories, it's often presumed that the corresponding duplicates of people can annihilate only each other, but can safely touch anything else. In reality, the matching is at the subatomic level: any proton with any antiproton, any electron with any antielectron (or "positron"), etc. | ||
