Static forces and virtual-particle exchange: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:16, 4 August 2010

Revision as of 00:28, 5 August 2010

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==Virtual-particle exchange==

In the modern picture, forces are generated by the exchange of [[virtual particles]]. A virtual particle acts as a carrier of force information between two bodies. The mechanics of virtual-particle exchange is best described with the [[path integral formulation]] of quantum mechanics. There are insights that can be obtained, however, without going into the machinery of path integrals, likesuch for instance,as why classical gravitational and electrostatic forces fall off as the inverse square of the distance between bodies.

===Inverse square law===