force carrier photons and magnetic attraction

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Force carrier particles mediate the fundamental forces, and for electromagnetism the force carrier is the photon. That’s what I was taught in high school. I (sort of) understand the idea that these are “virtual” particles though, not real. They mathematically model how the force acts but they aren’t actually there.

Pretending I’m an electron, I can throw a ball (photon) at a bottle (another electron) to knock away (magnetically repel) the bottle. Makes sense. But if I were a proton, then the electron is attracted. How can bouncing a particle (much less a mass less, virtual one) off the electron ever “knock it” towards a positive charge?

In: Physics

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Since it’s a virtual particle, it can do things that real particles can’t, for example have negative energy and negative momentum. A repulsive force is carried by a virtual particle with positive momentum, while an attractive force is carried by one with negative momentum.

Normally if a ball (with positive energy and momentum) hits you, it would push you in the direction of its travel because it imparts a portion of its kinetic energy and momentum to you. A virtual ball with negative energy and momentum will do the same, except the energy and momentum you receive from the ball would be pointing in the opposite direction.

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