Item 32.

Some Frequently Asked Questions About Virtual Particles

Original by Matt McIrvin, Comments, gifs and HTML authoring by Jack Sarfatti, Ph.D.

Contents:

1. What are virtual particles?

2. How can they be responsible for attractive forces?

3. Do they violate energy conservation?

4. Do they go faster than light?

i.e.,do virtual particles contradict relativity or causality?

5. I hear physicists saying that the

"quantum of the gravitational force"

is something called a graviton. Doesn't general relativity say that gravity isn't a force at all?

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