bernard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thus protons and electrons are held together by
> the electromagnetic force. Apart from the fact
> that each of these forces acts only on certain
> things 1) the elctrons are too far from the
> nucleus for the strong force to reach and 2) the
> strong force is 100 times more than is needed to
> hold the electrons.
>

So how do the various Gauge bosons that carry the different forces act ? I mean I've read that protons are composed of quarks and that the proton itself is held together by the strong force/gluons. I find the whole concept of a particle "carrying" an attractive force kind of difficult to get my head around. This is why barking up this tree playing with the idea of a different kind of atom that would not form matter (in order to do the galaxy seeding etc). If there is such an amazingly powerful force in a nucleus that is able to hold protons together - why does it need to be balanced by electrons with potential energy ? If I remember you have ions where you have more or less electrons. So if you had a hydrogen atom with no electrons that would be a hyrogen ion (which is to do with why things are acidic/alkalai) ? So what would these hydrogen ions look like and behave like in space ?





> A wonderful book to read is Don Lincoln. 2004.
> Understanding the Universe from Quarks to the
> Cosmos{/u} London:World Scientific
>


I have a pile of all kinds of books waiting to be read but it may be one to add to it. I'm kind of cursed by only being able to read extremely slowly. If I read faster than verbal speed, I get half way down the page and realise I've started missing things