Force between Positive and Negative Electrical Charges

[Martyn Arthur]

I have in the past been criricised for inappropriate postings that I could have resolved with research so this time I have done the research first.
The best solution I have found is from wiki "that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field."
What causes the force to occur?
What physical particle, occurrence, action, actually creates the attractive states between oppositely charged particles, say when remote from each other?

 

[BvU]

The best solution I have found is from wiki "that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field."

"that causes it to experience a force when placed in an electromagnetic field" is a quote from wikipedia lemma electric charge.

So basically you are asking 'what is charge" and you feel as if you get the runaround. I sympathize, but I don't think anyone can help you. From the wording in the electromagnetic field lemma

It is the field described by classical electrodynamics and is the classical counterpart to the quantized electromagnetic field tensor in quantum electrodynamics.

you are being referred to another world, but even there "charge" is a property that describes a measure of coupling to the EM field.

Duh. Apparently we can very well (understatement!) describe phenomena having to do with charge, but are unable to answer a simple question like "what is it".

Turns out the question "what is mass" suffers the same frustrating fate ...

(does it help if you get the answers as

What causes the force to occur?

The EM field

What physical particle, occurrence, action, actually creates the attractive states between oppositely charged particles, say when remote from each other?

The photon

No? Didn't think so .)

$\$

 

[Martyn Arthur]

Thank you; it is reassuring that I haven't been booted out.
So Is it right to say the following, or what am I missing please?
a. There may be mathematical / theoretical explanations that seek to provide an answer (theoretical or otherwise) to the question, I am in my first year of my physics degree so have not encountered them yet.
b. or, absolutely pragmatically, there is no known pragmatic, physical or otherwise explanation that can attribute the reason why remote particles experience the force.
Thank you guys for your patience!
Martyn

 

[Steve4Physics]

a. There may be mathematical / theoretical explanations that seek to provide an answer (theoretical or otherwise) to the question,

Yes. The mediation of forces by virtual exchange particles is often used to explain the various forces between particles.

(@BvU already hinted at it when he mentioned ‘The photon’ in Post #2.)

I am in my first year of my physics degree so have not encountered them yet.

The basic concept (virtual exchange particles as 'force carriers') seems appropriate to first year physics degree level. You can read-up on it if interested. You would typIcally be taught about it when you covered quantum mechanics and/or the Standard Model.

 

[PeroK]

Thank you; it is reassuring that I haven't been booted out.
So Is it right to say the following, or what am I missing please?
a. There may be mathematical / theoretical explanations that seek to provide an answer (theoretical or otherwise) to the question, I am in my first year of my physics degree so have not encountered them yet.
b. or, absolutely pragmatically, there is no known pragmatic, physical or otherwise explanation that can attribute the reason why remote particles experience the force.
Thank you guys for your patience!
Martyn

It's an interesting point that some people criticize QM, for example, for not having a comprehensible mechanism. But, when you look at classical gravity and EM, you have the same issue. There is no intuitive reason that a negative charge creates an electric field which attracts a positive charge and vice versa.

It's called Coulomb's and it is fundamental with no deeper underlying explanation.