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Articles: My Thoughts | In quest of Infinity-06
- Prof. venkata ramanamurty mallajosyula
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In contrast to the gravitational force, information about the electromagnetic force came in bits and pieces due to the investigation of many physicists over a period of time. But in due course, one had a complete understanding of it.
What now about the so-called weak and the strong force? Where do they operate and why are they so named? The answers to all those questions is simple. Firstly, both these forces, the weak as well the strong, operate only when the distances between the concerned particles are very small? How small is small? Around 10-13 cm and less! In other words, consideration of the weak and the strong force play an important role in nuclear physics and the physics of elementary particles in general, that is of leptons and quarks.
The discovery of the weak force was made during intensive studies on radioactivity, and the man who formally introduced it was Enrico Fermi [then of Italy], later to build the world’s first atomic reactor as also the first atom bomb! To put it in perspective I should perhaps say that a study of leptons is impossible without bringing the weak force into the picture.
I turn finally to the strong force. The idea for this came when people began to pay serious attention to the structure of the atomic nucleus. I think it was Heisenberg who first asked himself the question: “Suppose I look at an atomic nucleus made up of many protons and neutrons. Nature has huddled them all together and packed them into a very tiny space. But then, the protons all carry positive charge and so must repel each other heavily. As for the neutrons, since they are electrically neutral, they act like silent spectators so to speak. How come the nucleus is held together?
Why does it not come apart and the constituent particles all fly off?” After thinking about it, Heisenberg finally decided that some “strong force” held the nucleus together! This force clearly acted within the nucleus and Heisenberg reasoned that both protons and neutrons respond to the strong force. All that was a long time ago, around the mid- thirties. Yes, things were pretty vague, but since then enormous progress has been made and now physicists know a lot about the strong force.
Nobel Laureate Heisenberg
You are perhaps wondering: “What is this man up to? We are supposed to be talking about Infinity, which obviously must be something unimaginably huge; and here is all this chat about the infinitesimal! Has he gone bananas?” I assure I have not! You see God, the quintessence of Infinity, reveals Himself everywhere, from the infinitesimal to the Infinite. Right now, I am trying to take you to the microcosm of the physical Universe just to highlight how even in respect of the Universe, the micro and the macrocosm are intimately intertwined. With that caveat, let me proceed.
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