Why do magnets and radioactive particles behave differently?
Electroweak interaction
Why do magnets and radioactive particles behave differently?
Imagine you're holding a magnet and a radioactive atom at the same time. You feel the magnet's pull, but you can't see or feel anything from the atom.
Electroweak theory explains that at very high temperatures, like those just after the Big Bang, everything was one force. The magnet's pull is from electromagnetism, and the atom's radioactivity is from the weak force. They are different sides of the same coin, called the electroweak force.
Example
If you could heat up the magnet and the atom to super-hot temperatures, they'd both start acting like one force.
Remember this
Electroweak theory tells us that electromagnetism and the weak force are actually the same force at high energy levels.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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