Posted on 03/09/2002 5:41:26 PM PST by freedom9
Until it evaporates. :)
If one considers the bound electron to be orbiting around the nucleus of the atom, consider it is also moving at close to the speed of light. The difference in charge between the electron and the nucleus is the main thing keeping the electron bound to the atom.
Up, charm, and top use the gluon for their force carrier.
Down, strange, and bottom use the photon for their force carrier.
All six quarks are acted upon by gluons and photons. This is because all of them carry electromagnetic charge (u,c,t have a charge of +2/3 e, while d,s,b have a charge of -1/3 e), and all of them carry a color charge. There are three kinds of color charge, which are commonly written as red, green and blue. Every quark in the universe has one of these charges. Each flavor of quark can have any color charge.
(Geek alert: because there is one kind of EM charge, there is one photon, but since there are three kinds of color charge, there are eight gluons. Gluons themselves carry both a color charge and an anti-color charge, so you'd think that there would be nine gluons, but the combination red-antired + blue-antiblue + green-antigreen is colorless, so if you define a red-antired gluon and a blue-antiblue gluon, a green-antigreen gluon can be described as a superposition of the other two. Only eight gluons are needed to span the color space.)
E neutrino, u neutrino, and t neutrino use the W boson for their force carrier.
Electron, muon, and tau use the Z boson for their force carrier.
All quarks and leptons couple to both W and Z bosons. A W, for example, transforms an electron to an electron neutrino, or a t-quark to a b-quark.
Strong – The pion (and others)
Not wrong, exactly. The pion does mediate the inter-nucleon force. That force isn't fundamental, however. The fundamental force is the inter-quark force that binds the quarks into hadrons (such as protons, neutrons and pions), and that is what we usually mean by the strong force, nowadays. The force between hadrons is a residual color dipole interaction that is analogous to the Van der Waals force in electromagnetism.
The weak force is also necessary for the formation of the elements above iron. Due to the curve of binding energy (iron has the most tightly bound nucleus),
The curve of binding energy comes from the strong and electromagnetic forces. The role played by the weak interaction is to convert protons to neutrons and vice-versa, which is often required to make stable nuclei out of two lighter ones.
This particle has a zero rest mass, however, light has relativistic mass (since its traveling at the speed of light “C”) and can be acted on by gravity.
The relativistic mass of a photon is also zero. Gravity couples to energy density, which is typically dominated by mass. But even in Newtonian gravity, massless light particles will bend in a gravitational field (the trajectory of a test particle doesn't depend on mass).
Some might be from electromagnetic interactions. But in a nuclear reaction the bigger part of the force is due to the nuclear binding force, or the release thereof. The nuclear force is far stronger than electromagnetic forces. The difference is comparable to the difference between 20 pounds of gunpowder or dynamite or gasoline exploding, which is a lot, maybe enough to take out the windows of a pizzaria, and 20 pounds of uranium or plutonium, which would vaporize almost any small town up to 10,000 population.
That is a good one. We can say something about it, but what it is must remain a mystery for the time being. It is like gravity in a way; it pulls 2 particles together. It is like electromagnetism in a way; it is much stronger than gravity. But the nuclear force acts over very short distances, so it is not inverse square like gravity or electrical force. The nuclear force is what causes protons and neutrons to stick together in atoms heavier than the hydrogen atom. Neutrons would not stick together at all without the nuclear force, being electrically neutral. Protons would fly apart, being of like charge.
Still doesn't say what it is, does it?
Your reply does raise issues I hadn't thought about e.g. protons sticking together but yet being of like charge. Neutrons "hanging out" for no apparent reason. Etc.
Does an atomic explosion release this nuclear binding force?
I find it unfortunate that United States did not build the super collider in Texas if for no other reason than to find the answers to these questions. I hear from time to time scientists are unsuccessful in controlling a sustained fusion reaction which would change the whole economic picture of playing patsy with 3rd world countries with oil. This has been a good thread and I appreciate your posts. I don't have any background in physics just a general fascination with it. Just grasping a little understanding of Einstein's theories are great mind ticklers. Thanks!
In a way, it does. The particles of what were nuclei come flying out at high speed [hot] once they escape the nuclear binding. That's where the heat and light come from. You want to start with very heavy nuclei such as uranium. That's for nuclear fission where the nuclei break apart.
The other kind of atomic explosion is the thermonuclear, which is a different kind of reaction altogether, the nuclear fusion reaction. You might wonder why if nuclei are being fused, or melted together, there would be an even bigger explosion than if they are being split. What happens is that protons are forced together stronger than the natural electric repulsion force where the nuclear binding force can grab them. This leaves excess energy which is given off as heat and light, photons to a great extent. It's the THERMO in thermonuclear. This works only for nuclei that are very small to begin with, such as single proton [hydrogen] nuclei, with one or 2 extra neutrons here and there. The new nuclei have 2 protons and are helium rather than hydrogen. The fusion process can continue until the nuclei are of iron atoms [middle-sized], but that mainly happens in stars, it's not very efficient.
Trying to adapt the hydrogen fusion process for municipal power generation has been more than difficult, but the payoff is huge, so work continues.
The preceeding has been RightWhale's Atomic Theory. If any terrorist thinks it may have been of use, well, put it into your data base and maybe your machine won't melt down. Or maybe it will.
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