Are Fermions and Bosons Responsible for the Force Behind a Punch?

[robertroman10]

Just wondering...

If the interactions between fermions are the emittance of a boson (from what I understand from the grand design book by stephen hawking) then when you punch someone, is it just high levels of bosons being emmited and clashing or are the actual boson particles colliding?

 

[bapowell]

Contact forces are the result of the electromagnetic interaction. It's probably easiest and most appropriate to understand contact forces as arising from the electrostatic repulsion of the electrons in the atoms on the surfaces of the two objects in contact. From the viewpoint of QFT, these static fields can be understood as virtual photons being exchanged by the electrons.

 

[robertroman10]

So its just photons being distributed?

 

[pallidin]

Not exactly. There is an obvious "back momentum" effect.
Else a result of impact could never happen.

Because of the electromagnetic interaction, the force "wave" propogates at the speed of sound in that material.

 

[robertroman10]

So does this "back momentum" explain why someone with more muscle would punch harder, as they would be able to put more back momentum into their swing?

 

[Drakkith]

So does this "back momentum" explain why someone with more muscle would punch harder, as they would be able to put more back momentum into their swing?

More muscle allows (generally) more force to be put into a punch and quicker acceleration. The increase equals a harder punch.