How does electromagnetic force affect matter?
1 Answer
Jan 5, 2017
The electromagnetic force is responsible for the existence of atoms, molecules and chemistry.
Explanation:
The electromagnetic force is responsible for the interaction of charged particles. In particular, it describes how negatively charged electrons interact with positively charge atomic nuclei to form atoms. The theory of Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) describes this.
QED describes how electrons form atoms and molecules by "orbiting" around the atomic nuclei. Chemistry is the study of the interaction between atoms and electrons.
The electromagnetic force is also involved in alpha and gamma radioactive decay.
At a larger scale the electromagnetic force describes electricity and magnetism as described by Maxwell's equations.
