Type of Force

(and Symbol)

Applied Force
Fapp

Description of Force
An applied force is a force that is applied to an object by a
person or another object. If a person is pushing a desk
across the room, then there is an applied force acting upon
the object. The applied force is the force exerted on the
desk by the person.
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The force of gravity is the force with which the earth,

moon, or other massively large object attracts another
object towards itself. By definition, this is the weight of the
object. All objects upon earth experience a force of gravity
Gravitational Force that is directed "downward" towards the center of the
(also known as earth. The force of gravity on earth is always equal to the
weight of the object as found by the equation:
Weight)

Fgrav

Fgrav = m * g

where g = 9.8 N/kg (on Earth)

and m = mass (in kg)
(Caution: do not confuse weight with mass.)
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Normal Force
Fnorm

The normal force is the support force exerted upon an

object that is in contact with another stable object. For
example, if a book is resting upon a surface, then the
surface is exerting an upward force upon the book in order
to support the weight of the book. On occasions, a normal
force is exerted horizontally between two objects that are
in contact with each other. For instance, if a person leans
against a wall, the wall pushes horizontally on the person.
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Friction Force
Ffrict

The friction force is the force exerted by a surface as an

object moves across it or makes an effort to move across
it. There are at least two types of friction force - sliding and
static friction. Thought it is not always the case, the friction
force often opposes the motion of an object. For example,
if a book slides across the surface of a desk, then the desk
exerts a friction force in the opposite direction of its
motion. Friction results from the two surfaces being
pressed together closely, causing intermolecular attractive
forces between molecules of different surfaces. As such,
friction depends upon the nature of the two surfaces and
upon the degree to which they are pressed together. The
maximum amount of friction force that a surface can exert
upon an object can be calculated using the formula below:
Ffrict = Fnorm
The friction force is discussed in more detail later on this
page.
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Electromagnetic

The electromagnetic force is a special force that affects

Force

everything in the universe because (like gravity) it has an

infinite range. It has the ability to attract and repel charges.
Since material in solid and liquid forms are made of charges
having a unique order, they, too, may be manipulated by this
force. It is also responsible for giving things strength, shape,
and hardness. The electromagnetic force can be generated by
three types of fields known as the electrostatic field,
magnetostatic field, and the electromagnetic field. Some of
Earth's greatest philosophers brilliantly used the concept of field
lines to help visualize how one object can be moved by another
object without actually touching each other.

WEAK NUCLEAR FORCE.

The Weak Force nuclear force is one of the four fundamental forces experienced by elementary
particles. As its name suggests, the weak force is some 10 billion (10^10) times weaker than
electromagnetism. The weak force operates in certain decay processes of elementary particles.
The well-known radioactive decay processes of alpha and beta decay are mediated by the weak
nuclear force. Since the weak interaction is both very weak and very short range, its most
noticeable effect is due to its other unique feature: flavour changing. Consider a neutron (quark
content: UDD, or one up quark and two down quarks). Although the neutron is heavier than its
sister nucleon, the proton (quark content UUD), it cannot decay into a proton without changing
the flavour of one of its down quarks. Neither the strong interaction nor the electromagnetic
allow flavour changing, so this must proceed by weak decay. In this process, a down quark in the
neutron changes into an up quark by emitting a W boson, which then breaks up into a highenergy electron and an electron antineutrino. Since high-energy electrons are beta radiation, this
is called beta decay.
Due to the weakness of the weak interaction, weak decays are much slower than strong or
electromagnetic decays. For example, an electromagnetically decaying neutral pion has a life of
about 10^16 seconds; a weakly decaying charged pion lives about 10^8 seconds, a hundred
million times longer. A free neutron lives about 15 minutes, making it the unstable subatomic
particle with the longest known mean life.
STRONG NUCLEAR FORCE
The Strong Force is also one of the four fundamental forces, experienced only by quarks and
elementary particles made up of quarks. It is the interaction responsible for holding protons and
neutrons together in the atomic nucleus. The strong force is the strongest of the four
fundamental interactions, being approximately 100 times as strong as electromagnetism. It has
the extremely short range of approximately 10^-15 m, less than the size of the nucleus. The
strong force is 'carried' by particles called gluons; that is, when two particles interact through the
strong force, they do so by exchanging gluons. Thus, the quarks inside of the protons and
neutrons are bound together by the exchange of the strong nuclear force.
There are six basic types of quarks, called up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom. The theory
of the strong nuclear force is based upon the idea that each of these exists in three different
varieties, called 'colours'red, green, and blue to be exchanged in a force interaction. This has
no connection with visible colour, but is simply a convenient label used to describe a property of
the particles.

Just as the electromagnetic force can only be experienced by particles that carry an electrical
charge, the strong force can only be experienced by particles that carry the 'colour charge'.
Furthermore, just as electrical charge comes in two types that are labelled positive and negative,
colour charge comes in three types, arbitrarily labelled as primary colours (normally - red, green,
and blue) .