- #1
Cluelessluke
- 29
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Hey all, I am an undergraduate taking a particle physics class and we just learned that the EM force was caused by charges "spitting" virtual photons back a forth. In like second grade we learned that the EM force was dependent on the two charges involved (keeping this simple) and the distance between them. Now, if you somehow created a device that could detect, let's say, half of the virtual photons between two given charges, wouldn't the EM force between the two of these charges decrease without changing the charges or the distance between them? (I was told that once you detect a virtual photon, you promote it to a real photon and it no longer plays a role in the EM force between charges.) I think I know just enough about this to be dangerous. Thanks for your time!
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