- #36
- 13,366
- 3,506
GodsChild086 said:So let me get something else straight...
I forgot that in Physics 20 I learned something about strong and weak nuclear forces. So is it the strong nuclear force that holds those electrons in orbit so that they don't go crashing into the nucleus?
No,the strong interraction only occurs at distances of about 10^-15 m (one fermi),while the electromagnetic interaction is responsable for the atom stability and it is universal,that means it occurs at any distance;the key is that electrons in atoms have close to zero probability of coming to within one fermi of the nucleus.They're most probably found at distances of Angstrom order (10^-10 m) which is 100000 times larger than the typical nuclear distance.
Going deeper into QFT,we say that electrons are leptons that do not "feel" the strong interraction.
Daniel.