FORCES OF NATURE

The four fundamental forces of nature are the strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, electromagnetic force and gravitation. Strong nuclear forces are responsible for holding the nucleons together in the nucleus and quarks together in the nucleons. The gravitational force as we all know binds us to our planet, earth to the solar system, stars to the galaxies and so on. Electromagnetic forces bind nuclei and electrons to form atoms and molecules and bind atoms or molecules to form solid matter. Weak nuclear forces on the other hand cause the beta decay of nuclei and also are responsible for the fusion reactions that power the sun and stars.

INTERACTION	RELATIVE STRENGTH	RANGE OF FORCE	MEDIATING FIELD PARTICLE
Nuclear	1	Short(~1fm)	Gluon
Electromagnetic	10-2	∞	photons
weak	10-5	Short(~10-3fm)	W±,Z0 bosons
Gravitational	10-39	∞	Graviton

However with developments in physics in the 20^th century the textbook classification of the four fundamental forces of nature has broken down. We now know that the weak force and electromagnetism are two facets of one entity called the electroweak force. Can one go further and unify the strong force with the electroweak force?

It is possible. It is called the grand unification but that is a speculative step which could be confirmed only in the future. The grander unification will be with the unification of the gravitation which we may call total unification which is what Einstein dreamed of.