                                  T H E

                               Z E P H Y R

                      __     M A G A Z I N E
                     {__]++++++++++++++++++++++++++[]
                     Issue #48                10-6-87

                A weekly electronic magazine for users of
                            THE ZEPHYR II BBS
                        (Mesa, AZ - 602-894-6526)
                    owned and operated by T. H. Smith

                        Editor - Gene B. Williams

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                                (c) 1987

    THIS ISSUE:

       Ahhh, another guest issue. This time the author is Alan
    Hamilton. It involves a new force in physics that has been
    discovered recently.
       It's a bit shorter than the usual issues. But then it was
    slammed together in a hurry. Alan happened to mention the
    idea to me in mail, asking if I'd heard about it. I hadn't,
    and so obviously jumped on him to tell me more. That ended
    up with my conning him into doing an issue for the magazine
    so we could all learn and take part.
       In a matter of days he put this together.

       Hmmm. Maybe I have competition?

                         A NEW FORCE IN PHYSICS

                                   by

                              Alan Hamilton

       In the past few weeks, there has been a bit of an uproar
    in the physics world.  A new fundamental force of nature has
    been announced.
       Now don't give me that "So, what?"  This is important.  For
    many years, only four have been known about, and there was
    considerable belief that that was all there were.  This may
    be the key to a unified field theory -- a theory that might
    tie together all of the forces of nature, much like electricity
    and magnetism are tied together.  But, before I go into all
    that, here's a quick review of the original four forces.

       GRAVITY.  This one is pretty obvious, and very familiar.  This
    force is an attraction between any two objects that have mass,
    and is proportional to the masses of the objects.  That means
    that a massive object is heavier that a less massive object.
    Thus, a bowling ball is heavier than a ping-pong ball.  Like
    I said, this is all pretty familiar.
       It is generally believed that each of the fundamental forces
    is carried by its own individual particle, and in gravity's case,
    this is the gravitron.  The gravitron has not been directly
    detected, though. The gravitron is believed to have no mass,
    and thus travels at the speed of light, like all massless
    particles do.  The gravitron does not seem to decay at all, so
    gravity is a very long ranged force.  It has to be, since it is
    what holds clusters of galaxies together, over billions of light
    years.
       There is a theory out that says that there is an antiparticle
    for the gravitron, just as there are for normal matter.  In fact
    it is antimatter that they think gives these antigravitrons off.
    This may have one of two effects: super gravity, a stronger than
    normal attraction; or antigravity, a repulsive force.  Yes, I said
    "antigravity."  That in itself is rather extraordinary.  Who
    knows?  We just may have antigravity yet.

       ELECTROMAGNETIC.  This, too, is pretty familiar.  It includes
    electricity, magnetism, radio waves, light, gamma radiation,
    infrared, and ultraviolet.  This force is carried by photons.
    These are easily detected, and are well understood.  As magnetism,
    it can exert either an attractive or repulsive force.  As radio
    waves, it can induce electricity in wires; as infrared, it can
    heat up objects; as light and ultraviolet, it can induce chemical
    reactions; as gamma rays, it can cause nuclear reactions.
       Photons, like gravitrons, do not decay over time, so the
    electromagnetic force is a long range force, too.  We can detect
    radio waves and light from stars that are billions of light years
    away.

       WEAK NUCLEAR FORCE.  This one is much less familiar.  This
    force is involved in radioactive decay, where an electron combines
    with a proton to create a neutron and a neutrino.  This force is
    extremely short ranged; .000000000000000001 meters (10^-18 meters),
    to be precise.  That makes it useless for any distance larger than
    an atom's nucleus.  This force is carried by three kinds of
    particles: W+, Zo, and W-.  This force is responsible for ordinary
    radioactivity, where one element decays into another.

       STRONG NUCLEAR FORCE.  Again, not a very familiar force.  When
    you learned in school that an atomic nucleus was made up positively
    charged protons, and like charges repel each other, you might have
    asked why, then, doesn't the nucleus fly apart?  (I asked it,
    anyway.)  The answer is, the strong force holds them together.
    This force works over 100 times the distance that the weak force
    does, making its range .000000000000001 meters (10^-15 meters).
    The particles involved in this force are called gluons, since they
    are the "glue" that holds the nucleus together.  Be glad this
    force exists; otherwise you would fly apart into your individual
    protons, neutrons, and electrons.  This force is most commonly
    manifested in atomic explosions, atomic reactors, and atomic
    fusion.  It shows itself in nature in stars.

       THE UNIFIED FIELD THEORY.  It is strongly believed that these
    forces are not totally separate.  For example, weak reactions can
    give off gamma rays, an electromagnetic force.  This implies a
    connection, called the electroweak force.  There is some evidence
    to support the electroweak force's existence, but nothing is
    certain yet.  Likewise, there is support for an electronuclear
    reaction.  But, now, what you have been waiting for.....

       THE NEW FORCE.  This force, currently unnamed, is a repulsive
    force exerted between two objects.  This force is unique in a
    couple of ways. First, it is a medium range force, with a range
    of about 1000 meters. All the other forces are extremely long
    ranged, or extremely short ranged.  Secondly, it is dependent on
    the chemical composition of the objects involved.  Some believe
    that the strength is governed by the hypercharge of an atom (the
    number of protons plus the number of neutrons), others think that
    it is based on the isospin (the number of neutrons minus the
    number of protons).
       One particular experiment to test this forces goes like this:
    Make a ring, with one half made out of aluminum, and the other
    half out of beryllimum.  Hang this ring horizontally next to a
    cliff on a wire long enough to have a negligible resistance to
    twisting.  With only gravity, the entire ring would swing slightly
    towards the cliff.  But in fact, the aluminum half rotates toward
    the cliff.

       The article on the new force that I found was nontechnical, so
    that's all I know so far.  As it is, there may be other discoveries
    about it, too.  What does all this mean, anyway?  It may be just
    a laboratory curiosity; but it might mean more.  If it leads to a
    unified field theory, it may have a big impact.  At this time,
    it's really hard to tell.  Any questions?  Feel free to ask me.

       Most of this material is based on an Associated Press article
    that ran in the September 29, 1987 *Arizona Republic*. Additional
    information came from *The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science
    and Technology*, 1987 edition.

    Until Next Time

       To many of you it might seem unimportant that a new force in
    physics has been discovered. Obviously the force is weak enough
    to have gone relatively unnoticed for all this time. So what
    does it mean?
       That new force probably won't be useful for driving your car
    down the street (but who knows?). It might not operate the lights
    in your home or power up your computer.
       What it DOES do is give us a better understanding of the
    universe around us. Quite often what seem to be unimportant
    discoveries lead to greater things.

       Next time?
       Imagine yourself as a 7-year-old child, living peacefully and
    happily at home with your family. One day a group of soldiers
    pounds on your door and tells you that they have a need for your
    house. You have to leave.
       This happens not once but several times until your family
    has nothing left. In fact, there's not much of your family left.
    Your grandfather was dragged from the house and hung. An uncle
    was arrested on the street, accused of espionage and executed.
    Your father was charged with sabotage because he couldn't fix a
    burned out and burnt up machine.
       It's a true story. And it's coming next time around.

Zephyr Magazine is © Gene Williams. All rights reserved.