At The Atomic Scale, What If Em Force Were Stronger?

[jerich1000]

I've read many places about what would happen if the electromagnetic force were stronger relative to the strong force on the macro scale--such as for the entire universe.

 

But, I want to know about what would happen if this occurred for a single atom. At the atomic level, what if the EM force gradually increased on one atom? Would the nucleons begin to separate from each other (this would be because the only thing keeping the nucleus together is the fact that the strong force is stronger than EM)? Would the electrons orbit closer to the nucleus? Would the atom get smaller? In what ways would it react differently chemically?

 

Obviously if the EM force were to be too much stronger then very bad things would happen.

 

Answers to these questions will help me better understand the interaction between forces.

[HydrogenBond]

Say the EM force was stronger, for one thing there would be more positive proton-proton repulsion within nuclei. This would create a larger strain in the nuclear forces which bind the nuclei. This might mean that iron might not be the final atom that gives off energy when it forms. The final atom would have to be smaller. It also means higher atoms would be increasingly unstable and more likely to fly apart since the nuclear forces would have a harder time overcoming the extra proton repulsion; smaller atom universe.

 

Since electron repulsion would also be stronger, the orbital might also change. The orbitals use magnetic addition to overcome charge repulsion, such as opposite spin electrons in orbitals. Unless the magnetic force increased in proportion, the orbitals would need to fluff up so the negative charge repulsion is weaker via distance.

 

Since the attraction between negative electron and positive protons would be stronger, this will pull the electrons closer to the nuclei, thereby posing a probem for orbital magnetic addition. The compromise may new orbital shapes.

 

Oxygen can form O-2 or oxide, since the P orbitals allow magnetic addition in 3-D. This allow the repulsion of two extra electrons to be compensated for by means of magnetic addtion. With strong electron repulsion, oxygen might only form 0,-1 but not -2. This would mess up water or H2O, and may result in H2O being an equilibrium of oxygen and hydrogen atoms, HO-, etc.

[jerich1000]

Thank you Hydrogenbond for your very helpful, thorough answer! I will print it out and study it further.

 

I appreciate your comments.

[jerich1000]

HydrogenBond (the user), could you please tell me what "orbital magnetic addition" is? There isn't anything on that on Google or elsewhere that I can find.

 

Thanks.

[HydrogenBond]

You are welcome. Good luck with your study.

[bschaeffer]

I've read many places about what would happen if the electromagnetic force were stronger relative to the strong force on the macro scale--such as for the entire universe.

 

But, I want to know about what would happen if this occurred for a single atom. At the atomic level, what if the EM force gradually increased on one atom? Would the nucleons begin to separate from each other (this would be because the only thing keeping the nucleus together is the fact that the strong force is stronger than EM)? Would the electrons orbit closer to the nucleus? Would the atom get smaller? In what ways would it react differently chemically?

 

Obviously if the EM force were to be too much stronger then very bad things would happen.

 

Answers to these questions will help me better understand the interaction between forces.

I have found that the so called strong force is not stronger than the electromagnetic force, it is electromagnetic! There is an attractive force beween a neutron a proton of the same kind as the attraction between a small piece of paper and and a plastic pen electrified by rubbing over a cloth. There is also a repulsive force, usually called hard or soft core which is magnetic. Detailed explanation may be found here

 

http://www.springerlink.com/content/h673n477n243vu46/