Top 10 Coolest Fundamental Interactions of Chemistry/Physics

In classical physics, gravity was simply a force which varied inversely with the square root of the distance between two objects, and it was simply an explanation for why we have a constant acceleration in freefall towards an object, or why the Earth orbits the Sun. Albert Einstein took it to another level in 1915, with general relativity, as he explained that acceleration and gravitation were one and the same, and that any body with energy and momentum could deviate the spacetime continuum in higher dimensions, which was to reduce the progression of time under greater influence of this deviation to keep the speed of light constant. This is what caused the acceleration towards a body which we observe as gravitation, as opposed to gravitation resulting from a force.
However, this could not be expressed in terms of quantum interactions. These laws would state that, given that the geometry of the spacetime continuum is quantised at the smallest measurable units in the universe, the ...more

The strong interaction is aptly named; it is the strongest force in the universe, and without it, our universe would not exist as we know it. The strong force is mediated by gluons between quarks, the fundamental particles which make up hadrons such as protons and pions. Between baryons, it is mediated by a pion, which is unique as this does not involve a fundamental boson.
Quarks are distinguished from one another by the principle of colour charge, where quarks have a specific colour charge associated with them, its antiquark with its anticolour. The gluon mediates the colour and anticolour charge associated with the quarks with which it interacts, meaning that eight types of gluon must exist in order to conserve colour charge in any strong interaction. So a specific gluon can only account for an interaction between two specific superpositions between the states of each of the two colour charges in the interaction; for instance, the superposition of red with antigreen and green ...more

Strong interaction and gravtion are just opposite in nature. Although both are attractive, their magnitude and range are so different. While gravitation has infinite range, strong interaction has really strong strength of course. Obviously atoms wouldn't have existed without this.

The one we've all heard of. Photons are more than simply corpuscles of light, they mediate the fundamental interactions between charged particles, making the positron attract the electron and making the proton repel the proton next to it.
Electric fields and magnetic fields were previously treated separately, but it was the work of Michael Faraday and James Clerk-Maxwell which was to unify them. Faraday experimented with electricity and magnetism, and he noticed that if one could apply a magnetic field alongside an electrical current, he could deviate both the electric and magnetic fields present. The same could be done by applying an electrical field to a source of magnetic flux. This proposed that there existed a force which would induce a change in magnetic flux from a change in an electrical current, and vice versa. maxwell was to express these phenomena mathematically, to show that an electromagnetic field would flow from a positive to negative charge point, such that the ...more

The weak interaction is responsible for beta decay of nuclei, for the breakdown of unstable configurations of quarks. It was first noticed in 1933 by Enrico Fermi that nuclei of a specific configuration would decay into a more stable configuration; by release of energy in the form of a charged lepton or antilepton, and its antineutrino or neutrino respectively. This was mediated by the transfer of a W boson, which would be either positive or negative to conserve charge. Negative beta decay would occur when a nucleus was unstable due to having too many neutrons, so a down quark within a neutron would emit a negative W boson, converting the down quark to an up quark and the neutron to a proton. The W boson will promptly decay to an electron and an anti-electron-neutrino. Positive beta decay would occur when a nucleus was unstable due to having too many protons, so an up quark within a proton would emit a positive W boson, converting the up quark to a down quark and the proton to a ...more