Chapter 37, Problem 37.35E

An Antimatter Reactor. When a particle meets its antiparticle, they annihilate each other and their mass is converted to light energy. The United States uses approximately 1.0 × 10²⁰ J of energy per year, (a) If all this energy came from a futuristic antimatter reactor, how much mass of matter and antimatter fuel would be consumed yearly? (b) If this fuel had the density of iron (7.86 g/cm³) and were stacked in bricks to form a cubical pile, how high would it be? (Before you get your hopes up, antimatter reactors are a long way in the future—if they ever will the feasible.)