Where is the fifth force?

1989/02/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Fisika

Physicists know five forces in nature. The fifth force is a modification of Newton's gravitational law. Three years ago, Washington University's Ephrain Fischbach proclaimed that Newton's law had deviations in small-scale experiments in the laboratory. Since then, scientists have tried to demonstrate what Fischbach said, but they have not obtained decisive results about the existence of the fifth force.

If matter is affected by the fifth force, the orbits of the planets revolving around the Sun must undergo deviations according to Newton's laws. This anomaly may be seen: Recognizing that Newton was correct, calculate the mass of the Sun with the orbit data of each planet. Different masses would be obtained if there were a fifth force for each planet.

The results have not shown this fact. The debate has not yet ended, that the fifth force only affects the short distances, so it is not surprising that the distance on the planets is not appreciated.