Compare the four fundamental forces and see how carriers mediate interactions
Every push, pull, and transformation in the universe comes from just four forces. Compare their strengths, watch their carriers at work, and see how range depends on mass.
Click a bar to see that force's carrier, range, and the particles it acts on. The axis is logarithmic: each tick is a factor of ten.
Everything in the universe is governed by just four forces: gravity, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force. They span 39 orders of magnitude in strength, from the feeblest (gravity) to the mightiest (strong force). The Standard Model unifies three of the four.
The strong force is 10³⁹ times stronger than gravity. This enormous hierarchy explains why nuclear physics and chemistry operate on completely different scales.
Switch between the photon, gluon, and W boson and watch the carrier bounce between the two particles.
Forces are mediated by the exchange of virtual bosons. The photon carries electromagnetism, gluons carry the strong force, and W/Z bosons carry the weak force. Watch the carriers bounce between particles.
Slide the energy and watch the three couplings move. Notice the strong force weakening and the three curves drawing together at high energy.
The strength of each force changes with energy! The strong coupling decreases at high energy (asymptotic freedom), while the electromagnetic coupling increases. At extremely high energies (~10¹⁵ GeV), all three may unify into a single force.
Slide the boson mass and watch the potential shrink. Notice that a heavier carrier gives a shorter-range force.
The range of a force depends on the mass of its carrier. Massless carriers (photon) give infinite-range forces. Massive carriers (W, Z) give short-range forces that fall off exponentially. The strong force is special: it gets stronger with distance.
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