Inquiring Minds


Questions About Physics


Forces and Interactions
Strong, weak, electromagnetic and gravitational, particle-wave dualism

  1. Photons in Electromagnetic Interactions
    How does the exchange of virtual photons as per QED explain the electrostatic attraction of particles of opposite charge?

  2. What is gravity?
    Is gravity a particle or a wave? Is the concept of gravity the same as a subatomic Graviton? Can it be a particle or a wave? Or both?

  3. Electro-magnet
    I need to find out why the current effects the strength of an electro-magnet.

  4. Light emitted by particles
    "What is in the area between sub atomic particles? Does this area when accelerated give off more light or does it get darker? If you were to accelerate a flashlight would the electron flow through the filament slow down? Can we determine how fast something is traveling by the amount of light it releases? How does acceleration produce light?"

  5. Evidence of Higgs boson
    Is there any evidence for the existence of the Higgs bosson or Higgs field?

  6. Light emitted by particles
    "What is in the area between sub atomic particles? Does this area when accelerated give off more light or does it get darker? If you were to accelerate a flashlight would the electron flow through the filament slow down? Can we determine how fast something is traveling by the amount of light it releases? How does acceleration produce light?"

  7. Products from an encounter
    "What are the products from an encounter between a neutrino and an anti-neutrino?"

  8. Photons and the Higgs field
    "All particles except photons and gluons acquire mass by interacting with the Higgs field, and mass is felt by the gravitation field. Why do photons curve around massive bodies and cannot leave a black hole?..."

  9. Transmission speed of gravitational force
    "Is the gravitational force instantaneous? If I move a mass, how long will it take for it to affect another mass far away? Does this take a finite amount of time? If it is instantaneous, doesn't this mean that a gravitational signal should be able to exceed the speed of light?"

  10. Electromagnetic Wave Phenomenon
    "Please give me a simple explanation of the wave phenomenon. When you see it in your detectors, what causes the wave that the detectors read as far as energy or vibrations."

  11. Exchange of electromagnetic forces through photons
    "How does the repulsion and attraction between two charged particles actually work?"

  12. Attraction of electric charges and the meaning of field lines
    "I have seen in many texbooks that for positive charges, the field goes outwards and has arrows that go outwards. But this doesn't explain how two charges attract."

  13. Simple formula for the strong and weak interactions?
    "Is there a simple formula for the strong and weak interactions just as there is for electromagnetism and gravity?"

  14. Why can radio waves pass through a wall but light cannot?
    "If radio and light waves are both part of the electromagnetic spectrum, why can radio waves pass through walls but light cannot?"

  15. Light: Wave or Particle?
    "Wavelength is used to describe where electromagnetic waves fall in the electrmagnetic spectrum. Isn't this technically inaccurate, because light consists of quanta of electromagnetic radiation called photons? ..."

  16. Strength of the strong force?
    "How strong is the strong force?"

  17. Bose-Einstein Condensate
    "I recently read an article regarding the Bose-Einstein Condensate. Would this prevent the particles from interacting with each other and make the accelerator more efficient?"

  18. Crossing potential barriers
    "Does a particle really go through a wall or through a potential barrier, or is it possible that a particle hits the wall, and the energy is transferred?"


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last modified 2/21/2003   physicsquestions@fnal.gov

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