After centuries of research into known forces and search after new ones, people have come to realise that all forces we know of are “versions” of just four fundamental forces:[1,2]
Fundamental forces | |
---|---|
Gravity3 | Mass attracting mass |
Electromagnetic force2 | Electric/magnetic repulsion and attraction |
Strong nuclear force1 | Holds an atom’s nucleus together |
Weak nuclear force | Causes eventual breakdown of atoms (decay) |

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References:
- ‘Sears and Zemansky’s Univesity Physics with Modern Physics’ (book), Hugh D. Young & Roger A. Freedman, Pearson Education, 13th ed., 2012
- ‘The 4 Fundamental Forces of Physics’ (web page), Andrew Zimmerman Jones, ThoughtCo., 2019, www.thoughtco.com/what-are-fundamental-forces-of-physics-2699070 (accessed Sep. 27th, 2019)
- ‘What is the Theory of Everything?’ (web page), Adam Mann, Space.com, 2019, www.space.com/theory-of-everything-definition.html (accessed Sep. 27th, 2019)