JAPA’S FIZZICS

ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCE: Some say the universe is patchwork and God golden thread. From a physicist's point of view maybe the patchwork is the atomic elements and the golden thread is the electromagnetic force that knits the atomic elements into molecules. The atomic nuclei consist of bubbles of neutrons and protons and these nuclei are ringed with clouds of electrons. The entire atom is entwined with photons, the breath of angels, from which the electromagnetic field is spun. The weave or fields of the electromagnetic force consist of a warp and a woof, as do all weavings. In the words of physicists, there are positively charged and negatively charged electromagnetic fields composing the fabric of the electromagnetic force. When the two fields are woven together these fields cancel each other, creating the invisible fabric of the Emperor's New Clothes. The protons in the nucleus of the atom cast the positively charged field and the electrons in the surrounding cloud cast the negatively charged field. Therefore most atomic elements are electro magnetically neutral. Photons are passed between protons and protons, between electrons and electrons and between protons and electrons. The electromagnetic force is repulsive between protons and protons and electrons and electrons but attractive between protons and electrons. This attraction forces the electrons of the ringing cloud to orbit the protons huddled in the nucleus. But, if there is a repulsive electromagnetic force between protons and protons why does this force not shatter the nuclei of atoms. Well, the task of holding the atomic nucleus together requires a force stronger than any other!

The Universe Is And One!

JAPA’S FIZZICS

STRONG FORCE: The strong force has the Herculean task of holding the protons and neutrons together in the nucleus of the atom. Hercules, on his quest for the golden apples, took for a time the very sky upon his back to relieve the weary shoulders of Atlas the Titan. The holding fast of the nucleus of the atom, I dare say, is more fundamental to the organization of the universe than the lifting of the sky above the land and the sea. Like Atlas, the gatekeeper to the garden of the golden apples, there is a powerful gatekeeper that guards and even obscures the secrets of the strong force. The pion is that gatekeeper. It transmits the strong force between the protons and neutrons of the atomic nuclei. The pion turns the nucleus into a bubbling cauldron of protons and neutrons transforming one into the other. Imagine a proton is a bubble and it suddenly pops! Now, where there was one proton bubble two bubbles appear, a neutron bubble and a pion bubble. But, the neutron bubble plus the pion bubble would make a bigger bubble than the original proton bubble. If you read about the weak force you will find out that the gods allow this breaking of cosmic law as long as the pion does not travel but a very short distance from the neutron, created with it, before it pops against another neutron and they both become a new proton or maybe the old proton. There is not just one pion but three pions guarding the secrets of the strong force. The three mediate a force of not only attraction but transformation among the protons and neutrons that overwhelms the repulsive electromagnetic force between protons. The strong force may change protons and neutrons into each other, therefore something is either lost or gained by one or the other in the exchange of pions. But since the sum of the parts (a pion plus a neutron) is greater than the whole (a proton), the neutron and the proton at rest, cannot be considered a mixture of a pion plus one or the other. So now, to understand the source of the strong force- we must look beyond the gate keeping pion to that which may lie within!