Mehreen Alberts
The electric force acts between all charged particles, whether or not they’re moving. The magnetic force acts between moving charged particles. This means that every charged particle gives off an electric field, whether or not it’s moving. Moving charged particles (like those in electric current) give off magnetic fields. Einstein developed his theory of relativity from the idea that if the observer moves with the charged particles, magnetic fields transform into electric fields and vice versa! One special case of the electromagnetic force, when all the charges are point charges (or can be broken up into point charges), is Coulomb’s law 🤓 [1]
Multiwavelength Whirlpool Galaxy: Each image shows a narrow band of wavelengths of light and invisible radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum. The wavelength and energy of a photon relates to how fast electrons are accelerated. Low energy radiation comes from cool regions of molecular gas, and high energy radiation comes from hot spots where atoms are fully ionized. The combined images provide insight into the structure, temperature, and chemical composition of the Whirlpool Galaxy. The stars in the infrared image represent most of the mass of the galaxy, excluding dark matter, which can’t be seen. The optical image represents a slightly smaller amount of mass and the other three images represent only traces of mass in molecules (radio image) massive hot stars, (ultraviolet image) and hot plasma (x-ray image). (modified by Tisheena Stringer on April 1, 2020) [2]
Sciencing.com goes on to describe that where E is the magnetic field, v is the velocity of the particle, and B is the magnetic field. These are bolded because they are vectors, which have a direction as well as a strength, and the × symbol is a vector product rather than a simple multiplication. The equation tells us that the total force is the sum of the electric field and the vector product of the velocity of the particle and the magnetic field, all multiplied by the charge of the particle. The vector product produces a force in a direction perpendicular to both, in line with the previous section. (modified by Lesleyanne Stclair on May 25, 2021) [3]
The strong force is odd, though, because unlike any of the other fundamental forces, it gets weaker as subatomic particles move closer together. It actually reaches maximum strength when the particles are farthest away from each other, according to Fermilab (opens in new tab). Once within range, massless charged bosons called gluons transmit the strong force between quarks and keep them “glued” together. A tiny fraction of the strong force called the residual strong force acts between protons and neutrons. Protons in the nucleus repel one another because of their similar charge, but the residual strong force can overcome this repulsion, so the particles stay bound in an atom’s nucleus (opens in new tab). (last revised 55 days ago by Alethea Burk from Xining, China) [4]
