Friday, 23 March 2012
First Pic: The Strong Nuclear Force
Here's the first pic!
Quick summary of the Strong Nuclear Force:
An atom consists of a tiny, massive* nucleus surrounded by electrons
The nucleus contains protons which are positively charged
Like charges repel and the electrostatic repulsion between the protons is far larger than the gravitational attraction
Consequently the protons in the nucleus should be flying apart very, very quickly.
What keeps them together is the Strong Nuclear Force, an incredibly short-range attractive force that at the separation of one proton diameter perfectly matches the electrostatic repulsion.
As you can see in the cartoon, the strong man is holding the two protons together, if they separate a little he can still hold them together but if they separate a little more his arms won't be long enough to grapple the protons back to their original position.
So the Strong Force can keep 2 protons together but the situation is very unstable, if they separate just a little too much the magnitude of the Strong Force drops to zero and the electrostatic repulsion takes over to fling the protons apart.
However, neutrons (also found in the nucleus)exert the Strong Force too but having no charge they do not contribute any repulsive force and so help hold the protons together keeping the nucleus stable.
* 'massive': having large mass for its size.
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