The four fundamental forces
Introduction
This isn’t a post about dark matter, that will come out shortly. This one is about the four fundamental forces that govern all of Physics in our Universe.
These four forces govern how particles interact on different scales; from a subatomic scale to a galactic scale, these four forces are ever present. The four forces are:
- Strong force
- Weak force
- Electromagnetic force
- Gravity
You’re probably only going to be familiar with 1 or 2 of them, either way it’s good to have a good understanding of them all.
Strong force
The strong force acts on a subatomic scale. It is the force that binds quarks together (particles that make up protons and neutrons, I’ll have a separate post on this), the strong force occurs due to a property known as colour. Colour isn’t exactly the visual type of colour but rather something that certain particles have.
It has a range of 10^(-15)m which is about the diameter of a proton.
Weak force
The weak force governs types of particle decay. Particles decay tend to decay into their lowest energy state.
It has a range of 10^(-17)m.
Electromagnetic force
Like how the strong force occurs due to colour, the electromagnetic force occurs due to charge. Every particle has some form of charge. Elements in the periodic table are assumed to be in equilibrium, however they may form ions (elements with charge). These can be either cations (ions with a positive charge) or anions (ions with a negative charge) that form due to a transfer of electrons.
It has infinite range.
Gravity
So which force is the weakest of them all? You might think that it is the weak force, it’s actually gravity. In fact, the weak force is about 10²⁵ times stronger than gravity.
Gravity also affects every object on a macroscopic scale, from the galaxies to the planets, it affects everything. In fact, every object on Earth is also affected by gravity. Each object has what is known as a “weight”. This is different from what we believe is weight.
The “weight” in our day to day use is actually mass which is a measure of inertia. Weight is simply mass multiplied by the acceleration due to gravity. The acceleration due to gravity on Earth is approximately 9.81 ms^(-2). This means that for every second an object is in free fall, its speed will increase by 9.81 ms^(-1).
Conclusion
This was a very brief intro to the four fundamental forces. Hope you guys enjoyed it.
