When 2 electrons come close the "throw" photons at each other causing them to move to opposite way.
All I want to know is if you had a proton and electron coming close, do they "throw" photons outwards to come closer?
Sorry this is probably an easy question!
olgranpappy
Sep19-08, 10:58 PM
When 2 electrons come close the "throw" photons at each other causing them to move to opposite way.
All I want to know is if you had a proton and electron coming close, do they "throw" photons outwards to come closer?
Sorry this is probably an easy question!
Nah, it's not an easy question. Electrons don't "throw" photons at each other. Protons and electrons don't throw photons away from each other--or anything like that really.
The whole "throwing" analogy is just a way to get the point across that the force between two charged particles is not instantaneous--even though in freshman physics we say it is instantaneous (Coulomb's Law).
muppet
Sep19-08, 11:30 PM
More specifically, I think it's trying to convey the idea that the force is mediated by some particle- the photon. You can come up with some pretty sad pictures to make analogies of attractive forces like this (boomerang, anyone? :biggrin:) but they're really just to give you some idea of how exchanging particles leads to that kind of effect- once you understand that the photons mediate the interaction, that's as much as you can gain from them, and you shouldn't try and push them too far.
(Anyone who actually understands QFT in any depth should feel free to shoot me down if necessary btw!)