this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2024
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What is the weak nuclear force? (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 year ago by Wheaties@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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I think it's kinda interesting that there's a whole universal force that kinda goes uncommented upon in popular physics. I also don't know anything about the strong nuclear force, but I heard someone say once that it's actually just electromagnetism on a small scale? If there was, like, a good documentary that centers the history and experiments that lead researchers to conclude the existence of these things, that would be helpful. Being able to situate research in historical context really goes a long way to getting my head around a concept.

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[–] KnilAdlez@hexbear.net 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am no physicist, but I like to learn about subatomic physics, so I'll explain my understanding of the weak and strong forces.

So, protons and neurons are made of smaller particles call quarks, and they come in 6 varieties or flavors: up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom. The weak nuclear force can convert one flavor of quark to another. An example of this is in nuclear decay. A proton is two up quarks and a down quark. A neutron is made of two down quarks and an up quark. The weak nuclear force can flip an down to a up, and this will change the neutron to a proton. But a neutron is slightly heavier than a proton, so an electron is released. This is known as beta decay.

The strong force is kinda two forces by my understanding. One the the force that holds the quarks together to make the particle, and the other force holds the nucleus of an atom together. The first is mediated by gluons and the second is mediated by mesons (particles with 2 quarks).