SUBJECT: PHYSICS YEAR LEVEL: FOURTH YEAR

PSSLC COMPETENCY: Describe motion in terms of its cause

Specific Learning Objectives
1. Define force
Knowledge

2. Identify four basic forces of nature

Skills

1. Appreciate the importance of basic forces to maintain the balance of nature

Attitude

ASSESSMENT
1. Which of the following correctly defines force?
a. A quantity needed to continue motion
b. The capacity to do work
c. A push or a pull that changes a body ‘s velocity/position/form
d. All of the above

For numbers 2-4, refer your answer to the choices given

a. gravitational force
b. electrostatic force
c. strong nuclear force
d. weak nuclear force
2. The force that acts between electrically charged particles
3. The basic force responsible for some astronomical phenomena
4. The force which is responsible for holding nucleons together in the atomic nucleus.

STRATEGIES SUPPORT INSTRUCTIONAL

MATERIALS
Routine Activities
Pre-Activity
Review:

Motivation:
Drop the wooden cube (or anything that will not break) on the floor Wooden cube
then ask the students about the force that made the wooden cube to
fall down.
Drawing of an atom with
Present the drawing of an atom. Ask them why protons do not repel distinct protons, neutrons
each other despite their same charges. and electrons
Activity
A.
1. Demonstrate how magnets attract and repel each other. Two small bar magnets
2. Place one bar magnet on a smooth surface so that it can easily
slide.
3. Bring the North Pole of the magnet you are holding nearer (but not
necessarily touching) the South Pole of the magnet on the surface.
Tell the students to observe.
4. Bring the North Pole of the magnet you are holding nearer (but not
necessarily touching) the North Pole of the magnet on the surface.
Tell the students to observe.

(The students should observe the North Pole of one bar magnet
“pulling” the South Pole of another; the North Pole of one bar magnet
“pushing” the North of another. From this students should be able to
define force as either a push or a pull)

B.
1. Divide the class into 4 groups. Each group will be tasked to define Activity Sheet, Manila paper,
force and describe the nature of a certain fundamental force. pentel pen, reading materials
 2. Distribute the Activity Sheets and materials.
3. After the time allotment each group must report their output.

Analysis
1. What are the phenomena by which gravitational force is Chalkboard and chalk to
responsible? publish the response of the
2. What are the phenomena by which electrostatic force is students
responsible?
3. What force is responsible for beta decay?
4. What force is responsible for holding nucleons intact within the
nucleus?
Abstraction
1. Define force. Paper strips with definition of
2. Enumerate the 4 basic forces of nature. force and description of basic
3. Describe each basic force of nature forces

Application
1. What basic force gives form to our body and other objects?
2. Explain why leaves are fall “downward” and not “upward”

Answers to the Assessment:

1. C 2. B 3. A a. C

Activity Sheet

The Fundamental Forces

1. Read the material assigned to your group.

2. Organize the information that you can get from the reading material into a table that looks like the
one below.
3. Write your output on a Manila paper.
4. Prepare for reporting.

Name of Force Definition Interacting Attractive or Situations Where

Bodies/Particles Repulsive it is Manifested

Group 1: The Strong Force - This force is responsible for binding of nuclei. It is the dominant one in
reactions and decays of most of the fundamental particles. This force is so strong that it binds and
stabilize the protons of similar charges within a nucleus. However, it is very short range. No such force
will be felt beyond the order of 1 fm (femtometer or 10-15 m).
The strong interaction, or strong nuclear force, is the most complicated interaction, mainly because of
the way it varies with distance. At distances greater than 10 femtometers, the strong force is practically
unobservable. Moreover, it holds only inside the atomic nucleus.

After the nucleus was discovered in 1908, it was clear that a new force was needed to overcome the
electrostatic repulsion, a manifestation of electromagnetism, of the positively charged protons.
Otherwise the nucleus could not exist. Moreover, the force had to be strong enough to squeeze the
protons into a volume that is 10-15th of that of the entire atom. From the short range of this force, it is
predicted that it was associated with a massive particle, whose mass is approximately 100 MeV.
Group 2: The Electromagnetic Force -This is the force which exists between all particles which have an
electric charge. This phenomenon includes the electrostatic force acting between charged particles at
rest, and the combined effect of electric and magnetic forces acting between charge particles moving
relative to each other. For example, electrons (negative charge) bind with nucleus of an atom, due to
the presence of protons (positive charge). The force is long range, in principle extending over infinite
distance. However, the strength can quickly diminishes due to shielding effect. Many everyday
experiences such as friction and air resistance are due to this force. This is also the resistant force that
we feel, for example, when pressing our palm against a wall. This is originated from the fact that no two
atoms can occupy the same space. However, its strength is about 100 times weaker within the range of
1 fm, where the strong force dominates. But because there is no shielding within the nucleus, the force
can be cumulative and can compete with the strong force. This competition determines the stability
structure of nuclei.

Electromagnetism is infinite-ranged like gravity, but vastly stronger, and therefore describes almost all
macroscopic phenomena of everyday experience, ranging from the impenetrability of solids, friction,
rainbows, lightning, and all human-made devices using electric current, such as television, lasers, and
computers. Electromagnetism fundamentally determines all macroscopic, and many atomic level,
properties of the chemical elements, including all chemical bonding.

Group 3: The Weak Force -This force is responsible for nuclear beta decay and other similar decay
processes involving fundamental particles. The range of this force is smaller than 1 fm and is 10 -7 weaker
than the strong force. Nevertheless, it is important in understanding the behavior of fundamental
particles.

Group 4: The Gravitational Force - This is the force that holds us onto the Earth. It could be important in
our daily life, but on the scale of atomic world it is of negligible or no importance at all. Gravitational
force is cumulative and extended to infinity. It exists whenever there is matter. Your body is
experiencing a gravitational pull with, say, your computer (or anything close to you or as far away as
stars and galaxies) but the effect is so small you will never sense it. However, you can sense the
gravitational pull with the Earth (that is, your weight) due to the cumulative effect of billions of billions
of the atoms made up your body with those atoms of the Earth. This means that the larger the body
(contain more matter), the stronger the force. But on the scale of individual particles, the force is
extremely small, only in the order of 10-38 times that of the strong force.

Gravitation is by far the weakest of the four interactions. Hence it is always ignored when doing particle
physics. The weakness of gravity can easily be demonstrated by suspending a pin using a simple magnet
(such as a refrigerator magnet). The magnet is able to hold the pin against the gravitational pull of the
entire Earth.

Yet gravity is very important for macroscopic objects and over macroscopic distances for the following
reasons. Gravitational force:

 Is the only interaction that acts on all particles having mass;

 Has an infinite range, like the electromagnetic force but unlike the strong and weak forces;

 Cannot be absorbed, transformed, or shielded against;

 Always attracts and never repels.

Further Reading
Forces

One of the basic features in physics is the occurrence of forces that keep matter together. There are for
example, the forces that keep the cells together to build up the human body, and there is the
gravitational force that keeps us on the ground and the moon in orbit around the earth. We can
ourselves exert forces when we push something and, by engineering, get some of the energy content in
oil to produce a force on the wheels of a car to move it. From the macroscopic point of view we can
imagine many different kinds of forces, forces that act at impact but also forces that act over a distance
such as the gravitational one. In physics, though, we try to systematise and to find as many general
concepts as possible. One such systematisation is to find out the ultimate constituents of matter.
Another is to find out the forces that act between them. In the first case, we have been able to divide up
matter into atoms and the atoms into nuclei and electrons, and then the nuclei into protons and
neutrons. By colliding protons with protons or protons with electrons, particle physicists have uncovered
that all matter can be built from a number of quarks (a concept introduced by Murray Gell-Mann in the
60's) and leptons (electrons and neutrinos and their heavier cousins). In the same process
physicists have uncovered four basic forces that act between these matter particles - gravitation,
electromagnetism, the strong and the weak nuclear force.