Month: July 2014
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What are Stars?
Stars are all those little pin points of light in the night sky that slowly move around the sky throughout the year, but what exactly are they? Stars are the furnaces of the universe; a single star is a huge collection of matter that is gravitationally pulling itself together into a sphere and this gravitational…
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Forces of Nature – The Weak Nuclear Force
The weak nuclear force is indeed the weakest of the four forces of nature. It is responsible for the nuclear decay of atoms and there are three types of decay that take place: 1) Beta minus decay – A neutron decays into a proton and emits an electron and an electron anti neutrino. 2) Beta…
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Forces of Nature – The Strong Nuclear Force
The strong nuclear force is indeed the strongest of the Four Forces of Nature, but it only works at the heart of the atom and has a very small range, just 10-16 metres. This range is only just bigger than a proton or neutron and it comes from the gluons that hold the innards of…
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Forces of Nature – Electromagnetism
The electromagnetic force bears some resemblance to gravity in that it is infinite and obeys the inverse square law. However, this is where the similarities end. The electromagnetic force is 10^43 time stronger than gravity and, more importantly is has both a positive and negative charge. This positive and negative charge lead to important implications…