I want to talk about the four fundamental forces in the universe. Why? Well this has been a terrible idea of mine for some time now, so I was thinking, “Why delay it any longer?”
Before we can get to the main event, we need to establish what a fundamental force is and why would anybody care. There are many different types of forces that homo sapiens have discovered and identified over the years, such as the normal, friction, air resistance, spring, elastic, and buoyancy force, and many, many more. Sadly we still have not accessed the Speed Force, though several speedsters could be of assistance.
To the best of my understanding, all of the known forces are some form of either pushing and/or pulling. Because of this, and just like how scientists can trace living species back to their ancient ancestors, forces can be traced back as well.
This means one force is connected, related, or linked to another force, until you can trace them all back, to a point where the action being done, can’t really be explained any simply or easier; thus making it a fundamental force of the universe: that we know of. Someone with a lot more letters after their name than me, would probably be able to give you, the curious reader, a better explanation for this; but alas, you have me.
Just like the title of the blog indicates, there are four fundamental forces in the universe, that govern the laws of interactions. In no particular order, though some may feel like they are more important than others, the fundamental forces are electromagnetic, strong, weak and gravity.
Just like unpacking some IKEA furniture and you realise there are no instructions, you ask yourself, “Now what?” Ok, let’s look at the forces and try to understand what they are and how they fit into the universal jigsaw puzzle.
Electromagnetic Force
Just like Batman is known as the Dark Knight, the electromagnetic force is also known as the electromagnetic interaction. So what does it do when its not at home mowing the lawn?
The electromagnetic force seems to be the Swiss Army knife of physics, because it is responsible for a lot. It is a long range force that is either attractive or repulsive, though it depends on the charges that it is dealing with, which will be negative or positive.
This is the force inside an atom that keeps electrons in orbit around the atomic nucleus. The electromagnetic force also creates magnetic and electric fields, electromagnetic waves, chemical bonding, and visible light. It’s pretty cool when you think about it, well at least to me.
Strong Force
The strong force, the strong interaction, and the strong nuclear force, are all the different names it is known by; though their ex would have some creative names as well.
There is something to be said about doing one thing, but doing it really well. The strong force does one thing, but if it was bad at it, well…the universe and our world, would be a very different place.
The strong force operates on the subatomic level, namely in atomic nuclei. Inside the nucleus of an atom (except for hydrogen), protons have a positive charge, while neutrons have a negative charge.
You all know what happens when you try to bring two magnets together with the same charge; instead of attraction, they repel or push away from each other. So imagine that scenario with two positively charged protons, inside the nucleus of an atom.
Because the protons both have the same charge, they both should repel each other. But they don’t, do they? If they did, atoms could not form, along with stars, dogs, water, turnips, carbon dioxide, and people. But this doesn’t happen, so why?
That’s right, the strong force is actually strong enough to overcome the protons’ repulsion of each other, and bind them to the neutrons. But that’s not all, the strong force also binds the quarks inside the protons and neutrons together. The strong force has one very attractive job1, but it does it really, really well, just like the Flash.
Weak Force
Alright, let’s march on to the next force: the weak force, aka the weak interaction, or the weak nuclear force.
You may think the weak force has something to do with a geek or nerd using free weights, but you would be wrong. The weak force is actually about decay. Radioactive decay to be correct.
Just like the strong force, the weak force operates within an atom, but on a much smaller scale. Basically, through the use of the weak force, a proton can be changed into a neutron, but also inversely; which to me is just mental. This process is a form of radioactive decay known as beta decay, which is where particles are pushed out of the nucleus, as quarks change their “flavour.”
The weak force actually helps one element change into a new element, which is what happens with nuclear fission in nuclear reactors, and nuclear fusion in the core of the Sun. Now imagine if we didn’t have the weak force? To me, that is a horrifying thought; just like Sour Cream and Chives.
Gravitational Force
And so we have reached the fourth and final, and quite possibly the most famous fundamental force; gravity or the gravitational force. This is quite interesting, because of all of the fundamental forces, gravity is the weakest.
Gravity is a long range attractive force, that exists between two objects that contain mass. Gravity not only can describe the motions of objects and help growth of life forms on Earth, but also objects like planets, stars, black holes, and galaxies.
Gravity basically just wants to pull or bring mass together. When working on or talking about the subatomic world, gravity has little or no effect on this region of reality, which is where the other three fundamental forces come into play.
There are four footnotes I need to add to my badly explained blog.
1.) When discussing the fundamental forces, many contemporary scientists prefer to combine the electromagnetic force with the weak force, to become the electroweak interaction or electroweak force. This is because they are viewed as two sides of the same coin.
2.) If you have ever heard the phrase, Grand Unified Theory, it’s actually a particle physics model where the electromagnetic, strong, and weak forces combine into one single force. However after saying that, we can dial it up to 11 for the next footnote.
3.) There are terms like, Superforce, Unified field theory, and the Theory of everything, are; at least to me, different ways to describe all four fundamental forces and merge them together, to create one unified force. This force would also incorporate quantum mechanics and the general theory of relativity.
Electromagnetic!
Strong Nuclear!
Weak Nuclear!
Gravity!
Go, Superforce!
By your powers combined, I am Captain Superforce!
Captain Superforce, he’s our hero,
Gonna take ignorance down to zero,
He’s our powers amalgamated,
And he’s fighting on science’s side
Captain Superforce, he’s our hero,
Gonna take ignorance down to zero,
Gonna help him to educate,
Bad guys who like to lie and hate
“You’ll pay for this Captain Superforce!”
We’re real scientists,
You can be one too!
Because learning about the universe is the thing to do,
Disinformation and denial is not the way,
Hear what Captain Superforce has to say:
“THE POWER TO LEARN IS YOURS!!”
That would be a kick arse kids science anime show.
4.) When discussing the fundamental forces, the Standard Model of particle physics is crucial to this. It’s like the chips are physics, the salt are the fundamental forces, and the vinegar is the Standard Model. I will talk about the Standard Model and how it connects to the fundamental forces, one day, but not this day. That is another blog, for another Monday.
Hopefully that was easy to read and understand, so I’m praying I didn’t get too many things wrong. Anyway, that’s it for me. I have finally started watching Star Trek: Discovery, so I need to get back to it. Thanks for reading, walk your dog and I’ll see you next Monday.
1 Pun very much intended.
SOME GEEK TOLD ME 
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