Which force pushes protons apart

This is represented in the following graphic. A particle must be able to cross this barrier in order for the strong force to "glue" the particles together. Now, back to the nucleus. One thing that helps reduce the repulsion between protons within a nucleus is the presence of any neutrons.

Since they have no charge they don't add to the repulsion already present, and they help separate the protons from each other so they don't feel as strong a repulsive force from any other nearby protons. Also, the neutrons are a source of more strong force for the nucleus since they participate in the meson exchange. In the case of protons to protons, the strong force loses strength after the distance mentioned above and succumbs to the electromagnetic force which pushes the protons apart.

In this case the force carrier of electromagnetics is the photon constituent of light. So in the nucleus there is a delicate balance of the strong force pulling the atoms in to each other and the electromagnetic force which pushes protons apart.

It is only when they are so close together does the attractive strong force overpower the electrostatic. Answered by: Paul Speziale, B. Protons and neutrons are not fundamental particles like electrons are.

That is, protons and neutrons are composed of even more fundamental entities. For this case, protons and neutrons belong to a group of particles called hadrons, which consists of particles made up of quarks.

Quarks are particles that can be thought of to be the most fundamental ones like electrons. The composition of the proton is a combination of 3 quarks -- 2 up and 1 down quarks. For the neutron, the combination is 1 up and 2 down quarks.

In fact, the term "flavour" -- which is something like "type" in quark terminology -- is also rather fanciful. You don't expect "up" to be a "flavour" in everyday language anyway! Quarks interact via the colour or strong force, by the exchange of the colour force carriers gluons. In short, quarks are attracted to each other and held together in certain allowed combinations by the "colour force" or "strong force".

How, then, do protons and neutrons hold each other together? This can be described as a "leakage" or "residue" of the colour force between the quarks of the proton and the quarks of the neutron that pulls the proton and the neutron together.

This residual colour force therefore manifests itself as the strong nuclear force that binds "nucleons" -- a collective term for protons and neutrons in the nucleus -- together.

Or to lift your foot? Or to jump? All of those actions are counteracting the gravity of the entire Earth. And at the molecular and atomic levels, gravity has almost no effect relative to the other fundamental forces.

The weak force , also called the weak nuclear interaction, is responsible for particle decay. This is the literal change of one type of subatomic particle into another.

So, for example, a neutrino that strays close to a neutron can turn the neutron into a proton while the neutrino becomes an electron. Physicists describe this interaction through the exchange of force-carrying particles called bosons. Specific kinds of bosons are responsible for the weak force, electromagnetic force and strong force. In the weak force, the bosons are charged particles called W and Z bosons. As a result, the subatomic particles decay into new particles, according to Georgia State University's HyperPhysics website.

The weak force is critical for the nuclear fusion reactions that power the sun and produce the energy needed for most life forms here on Earth. It's also why archaeologists can use carbon to date ancient bone, wood and other formerly living artifacts.

Carbon has six protons and eight neutrons; one of those neutrons decays into a proton to make nitrogen, which has seven protons and seven neutrons. This decay happens at a predictable rate, allowing scientists to determine how old such artifacts are. The electromagnetic force, also called the Lorentz force, acts between charged particles, like negatively charged electrons and positively charged protons.

Opposite charges attract one another, while like charges repel. The greater the charge, the greater the force. And much like gravity, this force can be felt from an infinite distance albeit the force would be very, very small at that distance.

As its name indicates, the electromagnetic force consists of two parts: the electric force and the magnetic force. At first, physicists described these forces as separate from one another, but researchers later realized that the two are components of the same force. The electric component acts between charged particles whether they're moving or stationary, creating a field by which the charges can influence each other. But once set into motion, those charged particles begin to display the second component, the magnetic force.

The particles create a magnetic field around them as they move.