Why does, for example, the strong nuclear force exist? Do we know? Can we know? Perhaps this is more of a philosophical question than a science one, but I'm not particularly expert in either area so need some help in my ponderings

 

Does science only observe and describe what's there, or can it explain the existence of such fundamental 'things'?

No, generally speaking, physics does not explain why fundamental things are the way they are. We observe that the nuclear force exists and how it behaves. But why it has to be that way is ultimately beyond scientific investigation.

Thank you swansont

I have been thinking about this and any reason "why" we have forces I can think of just rephrases the question as "why" something else. One could try and muddle something together about work, energy, potentials, equations of motion etc but then you just ask about these.

 

The best we can really say is that the notion of a force seems to be a good way of describing lots of physical phenomena.

Yes, I have been thinking about this too. It is possible to pose many such 'why' questions involving scientific concepts. For example, why do opposite forces attract? (Quite possibly there is a valid answer to this question and I am just too ignorant of Physics to know what that answer is). Nevertheless, just because a question can be formed does not necessarily mean to say that it makes sense or leads in a positive way to expansion of the body of scientific knowledge. Certain scientific 'why' questions can, in a way, be answered e.g. Q. why did the pencil fall from a height onto the desk? A. because of the effect of gravity. However, even this answer is meaningless without an appreciation of the nature of gravity itself. Which brings us to the point of Science: understanding the nature of phenomena, not necessarily their ultimate reason for being - in fact, there may well be no ultimate reason for existence.

This is what I suspected but as a 'lay' person I wasn't sure. I'm interested in understanding the boundaries of scientific understanding. Thanks everyone for your replies.

Edited August 25, 201312 yr by pears

No, generally speaking, physics does not explain why fundamental things are the way they are. We observe that the nuclear force exists and how it behaves. But why it has to be that way is ultimately beyond scientific investigation.

 

 

That may be open to interpretation.. for instance, it is believed that the origin of the Planck forces are given as a fundamental upper limit [math]\frac{c^4}{G}[/math].

Edited September 15, 201312 yr by TrappedLight

That may be open to interpretation.. for instance, it is believed that the origin of the Planck forces are given as a fundamental upper limit [math]\frac{c^4}{G}[/math].

What are the Planck forces?

That may be open to interpretation.. for instance, it is believed that the origin of the Planck forces are given as a fundamental upper limit [math]\frac{c^4}{G}[/math].

Planck forces?

 

"it is believed" by whom?

 

And to use the limit, you then have to explain why c and G have the values they do.

!

Moderator Note

Off-topic posts regarding Planck Force split into their own thread here.