How can something invisible change atoms?
Weak interaction
How can something invisible change atoms?
Imagine you're watching a magician who makes a coin disappear and then reappear. You can't see it, but you know it's there because the coin magically changed its spot.
The weak force is like the magician's secret trick. It makes tiny particles in the nucleus change into different particles, which is invisible to us but changes the atom's makeup.
Example
The magician (weak force) makes the coin (electron) vanish (change into a neutrino) and reappear (another particle) in a magic trick (beta decay).
Remember this
The weak force is the invisible magic behind atoms changing their parts.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Related concepts
Force
Why can't you push a magnet to make it move?
Gauge boson
Ever wondered how particles 'talk' to each other?
Electroweak interaction
Why do magnets and radioactive particles behave differently?
Asymptotic safety
Why do quarks behave differently at high-energy particle collisions?
Emergence
Why do simple ingredients create something complex and delicious?
Schwinger limit
Can light itself create particles?
Swipe through more Physics concepts
Open Pocket Polymath