Fundamental Forces in Nature & Their Relative Strengths

The Four Fundamental Forces of Nature are Gravitational force, Weak Nuclear force, Electromagnetic force and Strong Nuclear force. 

• A push or pull that changes an object's condition of rest or uniform motion is referred to as a force.
• The weak and strong forces are dominant only at the level of subatomic particles and are only effective across extremely small distances.
• Magnetic and gravitational forces have a limitless range.

Also check: Force of Attraction Formula

Key Terms: Force, Weak force, Strong force, Gravitational force, Weak Nuclear force, Electromagnetic force, Strong Nuclear force.

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Fundamental Forces 

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From lifting a drink of water to lifting, pushing, or tugging an object, forces play a significant role in our daily lives. In nature, there are four universal or fundamental forces. All matter in the universe will disintegrate if these forces are not there. 

Any pull or push that causes an object to change its physical state is referred to as force (in terms of motion or deformity). A force, according to Newton, is anything that causes an object of mass m to move with an acceleration a. The four fundamental forces of nature are:

1. Gravitational Force
2. Electromagnetic Force
3. Strong Nuclear Force
4. Weak Nuclear Force

Also Read:

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Gravitational Force 

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The gravitational force is responsible for keeping planets in their orbits, which is only feasible due to their endlessly long orbits.

Definition of Gravitational Force

One of nature's four fundamental forces is the gravitational force. It's the least effective of the four. It's also the attracting force that results from gravitational interactions.

According to Newton’s law of gravity, it states that the gravitational force between two bodies is proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.

Gravitational pull is thought to be strong for enormous objects, such as the sun or gigantic planets because their masses are also large. This force is considered weak at the atomic level.

Gravitational Force Formula

The gravitational force is expressed as follows:

Where,

• Fg is the gravitational force
• G is the universal gravitational constant
• m₁ and m₂ are the masses of the object
• r is the distance between the center of the two object

The earth's gravitational force is 9.807 m/s².

Examples of Gravitational Force

• The moon revolves around the earth due to its mutual gravitational attraction.
• The gravitational force occurring between the earth and the moon causes tides to form in the ocean.

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Electromagnetic Force 

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A dense nucleus, protons, neutrons, and electrons make up an atom. The electrons live in an atom's outermost layer and they are charged negatively.

By definition, all particles are attracted to particles with opposing charges and repel particles with similar charges.

• Electromagnetic forces have a long-range, and because of the shielding effect, the force of their forces reduces with distance.
• However, they have a short range and are regarded as strong forces at the subatomic level
• They are still weaker than strong nuclear forces.

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Strong Nuclear Force 

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Nuclear forces are the most powerful and appealing of the four fundamental forces. If only electromagnetism and gravity are taken into account, the nucleus should fly out in separate directions. 

• However, it does not, reveal that another force exists within the nucleus that is greater than the gravitational and electromagnetic forces.
• This is where nuclear weapons are used.
• Strong nuclear forces are responsible for keeping atom nuclei together.
• Nuclear force attracts charged protons with the same charge.
• This is the most powerful force in reactions, capable of binding protons with identical charges to the nucleus.
• In nature, it is typically beautiful, although it can also be repulsive at times.
• It has a 1 fm range, which is extremely limited.

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Weak Nuclear Force

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The weak force exists between elementary particles and is responsible for certain processes occurring with a low probability.

An example of a Weak Nuclear Force is— 

Radioactive decay is caused by weak nuclear forces, notably beta decay neutrino interactions. It has a very low range (less than 1 fm) and is weak in nature, as the name implies.

The attributes of the weak force as follows:

• The only force that does not follow parity-symmetry is the weak nuclear force.
• It's the only force that isn't symmetrical in terms of charge.
• The transformation of quarks into different forms is caused by weak nuclear interaction.
• The propagation of the weak force is caused by carrier particles with substantial masses.

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Things to Remember

• The Four Fundamental Forces of Nature are Gravitational force, Weak Nuclear force, Electromagnetic force and Strong Nuclear force. 
• The strongest force in nature is the strong nuclear force and the weakest force is gravity.
• The weak and strong forces are dominant only at the level of subatomic particles and are only effective across extremely small distances.
• Due to the shielding effect, electromagnetic forces have a great range, and their strength diminishes with distance.
• Atomic nuclei are held together by powerful nuclear forces.
• Between elementary particles, there is a weak force that causes some events to occur with a low probability.
• Ocean tides are produced by the gravitational interaction between the earth and the moon.