What kind of forces hold the protons and neutrons together in the nucleus?
Asked by: Madhur
Answer
It seems that since all protons are positive, they would repel each other, and the
nucleus would fly apart. Fortunately, there is a force that holds it together.
Any force that you can think of goes into four different categories. They are,
gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force.
Gravity holds galaxies together, electromagnetism is the force that would
theoretically rip a nucleus apart, the weak nuclear force governs radioactivity,
and the strong nuclear force (130 times stronger than electromagnetism) is the
force that holds a nucleus together.
Answered by: Mitchell Wang, 8th Grade Student, West Chester, OH
'In a way science is a key to the gates of heaven, and the same key opens the gates of hell, and we do not have any instructions as to which is which gate.
Shall we throw away the key and never have a way to enter the gates of heaven? Or shall we struggle with the problem of which is the best way to use the key?'