Gravity and entropy give rise to nuclear force, which gives rise to the sub (all of this is comically hand-drawn). The sun then gives rise to life which is represented comically by a hand-drawn planet Earth with one over-sized sheep standing on top of the Earth.

In my previous essay on the romance between gravity and entropy, I explored the immense role that gravity plays in the birth of a star. Although I briefly touched upon how the nuclear force emerges during this process, I did not give due credit to it.

In this essay, I aim to correct that. But before I shed the spotlight on the nuclear force, let us do a small recap of what I have covered in this essay series thus far.

A Small Recap

I started with the following question:

“Where did our universe come from?”

The big bang turned out to be one of the stronger possibilities. Starting from the big bang, my exploration continued into a deeper discussion on gravity’s cumulative nature and its interaction with entropy on a cosmic scale.

Under normal circumstances that we are used to, energy diffuses and spreads until an equilibrium is reached. Place a cup of hot water on a table and come back a day later. Both the water and its surroundings are very likely to share the same temperature. Why? Entropy. And “negligible” gravity.

But what happens when gravity is no longer “negligible”? Well, that’s when the cumulative nature of gravity comes into full force (pun intended) to press atoms against each other and compress them to such an extent that atomic nuclei start “fusing” together, thus igniting the nuclear fusion process.

This nuclear fusion creates an outward pressure that is just enough to halt/slow down the gravity from compressing atoms any further. That is where I left off in the romance between gravity and entropy.

But as I mentioned in the introduction, this doesn’t do the nuclear force enough justice. There’s much more to it than just that.

The Dual Nature of the Nuclear Force

You see, gravity is just the trigger (more of a catalyst, technically speaking). When the nuclear fusion process starts, atomic nuclei start fusing to create a lower entropic state of atomic arrangements. As a byproduct, a part of the mass of the atomic nuclei is converted into to heat and photons as per Einstein’s famous equation (E = MC²).

This essay is supported by Generatebg

The beauty of this event is that the photons that stream outward increase the entropy of the environment more than the entropy reduction achieved by the nuclear fusion at the core of the star.

In a nutshell, the star is by itself an entropy-reducing phenomenon. But as far as the environment is concerned, the star is an entropy-increasing phenomenon. How? That’s the beautiful dual nature of the nuclear force. But wait; there’s more!

The Real Deal Behind the Nuclear Force

I just described how nuclear fusion involves fusing atomic nuclei resulting in low-entropic atomic configurations. The awesome thing about this fusing is that it happens billions of times per second for billions of years!

This makes the nuclear force one of the most fundamental forces in nature that power the existence of stars, and thus, the existence the sun. And thus, you and me!

Gravity and entropy give rise to nuclear force, which gives rise to the sub (all of this is comically hand-drawn). The sun then gives rise to life which is represented comically by a hand-drawn planet Earth with one over-sized sheep standing on top of the Earth.
The Role Of Nuclear Force In Powering Life — Illustrative art created by the author

Just think about it. We observe entropy all over the cosmos. Without gravity (or negligible gravity), entropy ensures that energy in an environment diffuses towards an equilibrium (recall the hot water cup). Add gravity to the equation and energy tends to “clump” together in some places, while not so in other places.

This directly results in a snowball effect of gravitational compression on large gas balls. At some point, the compression gets so intense that atomic nuclei start fusing. Beyond this point, gravity takes a back seat and for the next x-billion years, it is the nuclear force that powers the core of the star!

Without gravity, the nuclear force would not exist. And without the nuclear force, the sun would not exist. And without the sun, we would not exist. What an awesome realization that is?

I suggest you meditate upon that realization for a few moments. And while you do so, here is an interesting question for you: Without any of these (gravity, nuclear force, etc.,), would entropy still exist in the cosmos?

If you’d like to get notified when interesting content gets published here, consider subscribing.

Further reading that might interest you: 

If you would like to support me as an author, consider contributing on Patreon.

Reference and Credit: Brian Greene

Street Science

Explore humanity's most curious questions!

Sign up to receive more of our awesome content in your inbox!

Select your update frequency:

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.