Re: How do forces work?

Posted by Russ Abbott on Apr 21, 2013; 7:23pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/How-do-forces-work-tp7582853p7582891.html

When I asked AskA{Mathematician, Physicist} the force question, here's the answer I got -- which includes a pointer to the Feynman video mentioned earlier.

In quantum field theory we talk about forces being conveyed by "force carriers".  Photons for the Electromagnetic force, W+, W-, and Z bosons for the Nuclear Weak force, and Gluons for the Nuclear Strong force.  There's also a theoretical particle called the "Graviton" for gravity, but there are a lot of issues with that.

As for the more fundamental question of how those carriers do anything at all, or why they interact with some particles but not others (e.g., photons only interact with charged particles), there unfortunately may never be a particularly good answer for that.

There's a video here where Feynman addresses (a little snarkily) this very problem.

 

-- Russ Abbott
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  Professor, Computer Science
  California State University, Los Angeles

  My paper on how the Fed can fix the economy: ssrn.com/abstract=1977688
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  CS Wiki and the courses I teach
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On Sat, Apr 20, 2013 at 11:31 PM, Russ Abbott <[hidden email]> wrote:

Yes, I definitely wanted Bruce's post.

 

-- Russ Abbott
_____________________________________________

  Professor, Computer Science
  California State University, Los Angeles

  My paper on how the Fed can fix the economy: ssrn.com/abstract=1977688
  Google voice: 747-999-5105

  Google+: plus.google.com/114865618166480775623/

  vita:  sites.google.com/site/russabbott/

  CS Wiki and the courses I teach
_____________________________________________ 

On Sat, Apr 20, 2013 at 9:47 AM, Owen Densmore <[hidden email]> wrote:

On Fri, Apr 19, 2013 at 5:11 PM, Stephen Guerin <[hidden email]> wrote:

Aya, it turns out Bruce recently unsubscribed from FRIAM. I hope you guys on the list are happy with your signal to noise ratio ;-)    Just kidding...keep it up.

OT, but:  I think we failed a test.  Maybe we should split the list?  Or use wedtech exclusively for physics, programming, etc?

I now simply don't know who is on what list, nor what their interests are.  I'm sure Russ wanted Bruce's post, right?

   -- Owen

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