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There are four fundamental
forces acting in nature: the gravitational force, the
electromagnetic force, the strong and the weak force.
If one compares the strength of the different forces,
setting the gravitational force at 1, the proportion
becomes:
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the
gravitational force |
1 |
| |
the weak
force |
1031 |
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the
electromagnetic force |
1036 |
| |
the strong
force |
1038 |
The gravitational force acts on
macroscopic objects like man, the earth, the sun, but
because of its minute strength it is completely
uninteresting for elementary particles. The
electromagnetic force is 100 000 times stronger than
the weak force and the strong force is 10 million
times stronger than the weak force. The weak force
acts between all particles (except the photon which
is the carrier of the electromagnetic force) and
results in the decay of many different particles. In
order to exclusively study the effect of the weak
force, it is necessary that the other two, completely
dominating forces, are not active. The
electromagnetic force acts between charged particles.
The strong force acts between hadrons, a group of
particles constructed of quarks.
The best way to study the
weak force is with the help of the neutrino.
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