weak force

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: weak force

Fundamental interaction that underlies some forms of radioactivity and certain interactions between subatomic particles. It acts on all elementary particles that have a spin of 1/2. The particles interact weakly by exchanging particles that have integer spins. These particles have masses about 100 times that of a proton, and it is this relative massiveness that makes the weak force appear weak at low energies. For example, in radioactive decay, the weak force has a strength about 1/100,000 that of the electromagnetic force. However, it is now known that the weak force has intrinsically the same strength as the electromagnetic force, and the two are believed to be only different manifestations of a single electroweak force (see electroweak theory).

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One of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is involved primarily in the phenomenon of radioactivity. (See standard model and strong force.)

WordNet: weak force

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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: (physics) an interaction between elementary particles involving neutrinos or antineutrinos that is responsible for certain kinds of radioactive decay; mediated by intermediate vector bosons
Synonym: weak interaction

Copyrights:

		Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
		Science Dictionary. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved. Read more
		WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more

	standard model (Science)
	intermediate vector boson (particle physics)
	weak interaction

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