Starting with the discovery of gravity with Issac Newton, to more recent nuclear force theories, physicists have developed four fundamental forces of nature that govern everything that happens in the universe. To placing a magnet on our fridge, to the movement of the planets in our solar system, the four forces explain every phenomenon there is. The most well known of all the 4 forces of nature is gravity. Gravity is the pulling of objects with weight or mass towards one another. It is what keeps the planets rotating around the sun and what keeps us on earth. The first to theorize about gravity was Issac Newton in the 17th century, who argued the universal force of attraction existed with all objects with mass. This became known as The Law of Universal Gravitation. Many years later, Einstein proposed gravity is Gravity Visualized actually a consequence of objects bending space-time. This can be visualized by a fabric tied up and even with the ground, with a heavy object sinking into it and smaller objects falling towards it. There are many applications of gravity as it affects our everyday lives. Examples are the falling of water generating hydroelectric dams, and how the International Space Station (ISS) stays rotating around earth. Since gravity is what keeps us bound to earth, and solar systems held together, it is one of the most important fundamental forces. The next fundamental force is electromagnetism. This is the interaction of positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons. Opposite charged particles attract, and like charges repel. Electromagnetism is similar to gravity in that it can be felt from any distance. While scientists once thought magnetism and electric forces were two seperate forces, newer theories and evidence in the 18th century suggested they are the same. The first to discover this was Hans Christian Oersted, who while giving a lecture, sent an electric current to both sides of a battery and noticed a nearby compass deflected opposite of magnetic north. Electromagnetism is responsible for the essence of lightwaves and chemistry itself. There are many applications of this force. Electromagnets are used in a variety of electronics and machines, such as motors, generators, transformers, and relays. The next fundamental force is the strong nuclear force, or just the strong force. This is the strongest of all the four forces. It holds together particles by keeping the protons and the neutrons of an atom’s nucleus together. This was first discovered by Japanese physicist Hideki Yukawa, and was later developed by The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in the 1970’s. The last fundamental force is the weak force, or the weak nuclear interaction. This is the force that causes particles to decay, and for particles to transform into other particles. This is due to the exchange of force carrying particles, called bosons. The effects of the weak nuclear force are responsible for the fusion reaction inside of the sun, which in turn warms our planet and is the center of our solar system. After many years of hard work by scientists and physicists, starting with the scientific revolution, we have successfully developed a standard theory of all forces of the universe. The four fundamental forces theory is the best we have right now, and only more theories and discoveries await us. Sources https://www.space.com/four-fundamental-forces.html https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200807/physicshistory.cfm https://www.livescience.com/48575-strong-force.html
