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Which of the four forces holds the nucleus together, and which tends to push it apart?

Answer 1

The strong force holds the nucleus together and the electromagnetic force tries to push it apart.

Protons and neutrons make up an atomic nucleus. Protons are positively charged particles that repel one another. Electromagnetic force is the cause of interaction between charged particles. In an atomic nucleus, every proton repels every other proton in the nucleus, attempting to break the nucleus apart.

Effectively holding the nucleus together is the short-tanged strong nuclear force that binds neighboring protons and neutrons together.

Only specific numbers of protons and neutrons can be bound into a stable nucleus because the strong and electromagnetic forces must be in balance for a nucleus to be stable.

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Answer 2

Ivy Allen

The nucleus is held together by the strong nuclear force, but the electromagnetic force tends to push it apart.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.