geistkiesel said:
How do you know that the nuclear forces aren't a form of magnetism? What is the nature of the physical atttributes of magnetism that excludes nuclear forces from being a form of magnetism?
Geistkiesel
Short answer: Magnetic forces and strong forces have entirely different functional variation with separation.
Magnetic forces have a range dependance well described by Maxwell's equations. Because magnetic monopoles have probably never been observed Maxwell's equations, as usually written, do not include any magnetic charge density term, but they can be written to include one and remain completely consistent with all observations.
The field from a magnetic monopole falls off just like that from an electric charge - monotonically, smoothly as the inverse square. All magnets resemble two separated monopoles, one S and one N type. Again, just like the electric dipole (equal + and - charges separated), the field depends upon the angle between the field point and the dipole axis, and roughly on the inverse cube of the distance. That is, in summary, electro and magnetic forces are governed by Maxwell's equations and have smooth, monotonic decreases with increasing separtions for the field source, but do not cease to exist at any range.
The strong force is entirely different. At very short ranges, it is repulsive. If it were to become increasingly attractive as the range decreased, (like the E&M forces) then all mater would be lost into micro black holes (which would essentailly immediately "evaporte" in a burst gamma rays).
At distance several time the oxygen nuclear diameter, the strong force does not exist. Not that it is just very weak. IT DOES NOT EXIST. (It depends upon the exchange of more fundamental particles that are not stable and thus have limited ranges, even if travelling at the speed of light.)
For separations larger than a proton diameter (approximately) and less than an oxygen nuclear diameter, the strong force is attractive and holds the multi-proton nucleus together. It compresses the nuclear space between neutrons and protons until there is a balance between it and the electro static repulsion amoung the positively charged protons.
If the strong forced did not weaken and reverse sign (become repulsive) but continued to increase (as the electric and magnetic forces do) with decreasing separation of the nuclear particles, then this balance between it and the electrostatic repulsion would be imposible. I.e. as stated earlier, nuclear matter would shrink ever more rappidly as the strong force grew stronger - producing the micro black hole and a burst of gamma ray as all matter ceased to exist.
That is if the strong force were governed by Maxwell's equations as magnetism is, then matter could not exist. Last time I looked arround, there seemed to some arround.
Yorda (perhaps you?) would not doubt say that "matter is only in my mind" etc. but my world view is so different that I don't attempt to discuss with people disputing the existance of matter, physics facts, etc.
