this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Fundamental means it cannot be explained by being caused by something else.

Fundamental force means we expect a carrier particle to explain it (for gravity that’s the Graviton, although it hasn’t been detected yet).

electromagnetism is caused by quantum phenomena.

Not even remotely true.

What is the cause for spacetime or quantummechanics? Idk but somehow they don't make it on the list of fundamental forces.

Quantum mechanics is mostly that statistics is more complicated than we all thought . Seeking a cause for spacetime is interesting. It might be relevant to mention that there is a fundamental particle that imparts mass, which we call the Higgs Boson. I guess that could make mass and inertia something of a “fundamental force”.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

Maybe i am wording it wrong. I did make the comment half joking but my current understanding of how magnetism really works, which my physics teacher was unable to answer has a chapter on wikipedia called Quantum-mechanical origin of magnetism

I have no degrees in this stuff though, i just think about them recreationally.

The carrier particle thing to describe a fundamental force is new to me, and honestly feels very counterintuitive to how i started to understand things.

[–] WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

diamagnetism, paramagnetism and ferromagnetism can be fully explained only using quantum theory

The magnetic properties of certain materials (e.g. why an unmagnetized piece of iron sticks to a magnet of either polarization), the way permanent magnets work, is best explained by quantum mechanics.

However, the electromagnetic force itself doesn’t “arise” from quantum mechanics, and you can explain things like electromagnets and a lot of common electric circuits (until you need a transistor) quite well without considering quantum mechanics.

Usually you take the “classical” formula for a force and to inform your quantum mechanical model of particles, and that’s how you can arrive at things like deriving how permanent magnets work with the help of w quantum mechanics.

Generally, a lot of material science and chemistry is inherently quantum mechanical because the way atomic orbitals and molecular bonds work is heavily quantum mechanical.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thanks for a we written reply.

Though i still dont quite get this

the electromagnetic force itself doesn’t “arise” from quantum mechanics, and you can explain things like electromagnets and a lot of common electric circuits (until you need a transistor) quite well without considering quantum mechanics.

You seen to say if we can explain x without y then y cannot be fundamental to x.

But can electromagnetism at all emerge if the quantum mechanics dont exist to emerge things like magnetism and some of the behavior of electrons?

[–] Zink@programming.dev 0 points 1 week ago

But can electromagnetism at all emerge if the quantum mechanics dont exist to emerge things like magnetism and some of the behavior of electrons?

Well yeah, sure. Earlier you said something like "electromagentism is caused by quantum phenomena," but you can say that about almost every object and behavior in the universe! We don't have a theory of everything but the standard model and quantum field theory explain a lot.

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