Many of the truths that we cling to depend on our point of view
-yoda
There are four fundamental forces of nature that science guys know about.
Who doesn’t like being strong? The Strong Force is so aptly named as it is indeed the strongest of the four known to scientists at this time. Hundreds and millions of times stronger than the other forces it is. This is the force that is responsible for the stability of matter. Protons and neutrons are composed of quarks, and it is the strong force, or more correctly the strong interaction that serves to confine the quarks so that they can form the protons and neutrons. The residual effect of this is what fixes the protons and neutrons together to form the nucleus of an atom. The study of all of this has the fancy title of, the theory of quantum chromodynamics. One novel feature of this interaction is that it does not diminish over distance as the other fundamental forces do; it remains constant. Distance however is a matter of perspective… we are talking about 1 femtometre; give or take. That’s 10-15 metres. Or about the radius of a proton. Or in other words really, really small.
Nobody likes being weak. But it’s the classic yin-yang relationship. You can’t really define strength without also having weak. We have the so-called Weak Force in nature. And by weak I mean weak. It is a million times weaker than the Strong Force. It is mechanism that radioactive decay works by, and love em or hate em, it is how nuclear fission reactors work. Everybody knows that quarks can change from one type (or flavour) to another right? This can even cause a neutron to turn into a proton. How cool is that? It’s the weak interaction that causes this change. All recognized quarks and leptons interact via the Weak Force.
Electromagnetism. Yep, you guessed it. It’s the combination of both electricity and magnetism into one swell force. It’s also a bit more accessible that the other two we discussed. Most of the stuff we see around us; the matter, takes its form due to electromagnetic forces between molecules. And of course we harness the properties of Electromagnetism for virtually all of our modern technology, from expensive phonographs, to Bosch drills. Light itself is an electromagnetic wave. Our good friend Professor Einstein was instrumental to bringing a new light (pun) to classical Electromagnetism and it was his early work that was the basis for quantum physics and a branch thereof known as Quantum Electrodynamics or QED. One interesting thing of note is that at exceptionally high energies Electromagnetism and the Weak Force combine to a single force known as the Electro-weak Force. But we are talking in excess of 100 Gev; which is close to Big Bang kind of energies. So nothing we usually see in day to day life.
But one other force we do see in day to day life is Gravity. My personal favourite! Gravity is the one that you dance, play, and blend with when climbing and surfing and tossing around kettlebells and almost any other physical pursuit. The interaction with it is everyday accessible and understandable by everyone to some degree at a very visceral level. We may not understand the scientific language that describes gravity, nor are we all adepts at being intimate with it, but we all understand that what goes up must come down, and the bigger they are the harder they fall.
But of course there is a deep and complex history of science and math behind gravity as well. There are two popular ‘versions’ of gravity. The first real rigorous mathematical description of gravity was by Isaac Newton. And he did a pretty good job of it, using apples and primitive telescopes, and some smarts. It has stood the test of time as well. Although it has been eclipsed by a much newer and more complete and accurate theory, it is still accurate enough to launch spacecraft and send them successfully to Mars and the outer planets. But that fellow Einstein got busy again and constructed his General Theory of Relativity. This theory defines gravity very accurately; as a consequence of the curvature of space-time…. Whoa!
But it gets more interesting than that. This theory of relativity is one of the most successful and proven theories of all time. The theory of quantum mechanics is equally successful and proven. The catch is that the two are not compatible with each other; especially at very short distances. This has been one of the last ‘great problems’ in physics: Reconciling quantum gravity. There are a bunch of ideas out there from String Theory to Quantum Loop Gravity, to something called the Superfluid Vacuum Theory (which seems a bit like a renaissance of the Luminiferous Aether Theory) but the jury is still out.
And even though gravity can quickly spell your doom when you pitch off that highball boulder problem, drop a kettlebell on your grill or get smashed by a big wave, it is the weakest of the four forces. Weaker by a long shot. 10-36 times as weak as the previously mentioned Electromagnetic force. Really? How can this be you ask? Here’s a great experiment you can do. All you need is a floor, a metal paper clip, and a refrigerator magnet. Place the paperclip on the floor. Hold the magnet over the paper clip until it picks it up. You have just witnessed the Electromagnetic Force of the magnet overpowering the Gravitational Force of the entire planet! Nuff said.
There is no gravity, the earth sucks…
– Washroom graffiti B.C. parliament buildings