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Fundamental Force Strength and Fusion
Name: John
Status: student
Age: N/A
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: N/A
Question:
If gravity is the weakest of the four forces of nature, how does
the gravity in stars cause fusion of nuclei of atoms, which are held
together by a stronger force, the weak nuclear force? Is it a matter of
strength over distance?
Replies:
When scientists compare fundamental forces, they are referring to the
magnitude of the forces in a comparable situation. The strong force is
much stronger than gravity in the context of the quarks and gluons
that make up a proton. However, when you assemble a large amount of
matter, the impact of the strong force does not accumulate the way it
does for gravity. With a large amount of matter, gravitational forces
add on each other, and certainly can generate forces larger than the
strong force in a proton. So, yes, it is partially a length issue, but
it is also an additive effect.
Actually, this explanation is a an (over-)simplification and is not
rigorously correct -- to get the technically correct story, the topic
to study is quantum chromodynamics (QCD), which remains an active
field of research today.
Hope this helps,
Burr Zimmerman
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Update: June 2012
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