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Submission + - The Weak Force does more than just cause radioactive decays

Submitted by StartsWithABang
StartsWithABang writes: There are four known fundamental forces: gravitation, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force. But while we often speak of gravitation as an attractive force between masses (or anything with energy), of the electric force as charged particles attracting or repelling, of quarks and gluons attracting one another and keeping nuclei bound together, we describe the weak force as “responsible for radioactive decay.” Is this right? Shouldn’t the weak force, you know, be a force? Shouldn’t there be a weak charge and attraction or repulsion based on that charge? As it turns out, there ought to be one, but due to the fact that it’s less than one-millionth the strength of the electromagnetic interaction, we were unable to measure it. Until 2013, that is, when we did for the first time!

Comment Re:Yes, but can it launch Waze (Score 1) 235

what does that have to do with the question being asked?

Everyone is mentioning Seattle, which is the city where the Space Needle is located. "Seattle" is a very wrong answer to the question, "Olympia" less so. I'm surprised you couldn't pick that up from the conversation.*

*Not really, you seem pretty inflexible.

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