he list is exhaustive. As compared to contact forces, there are only a few non contact forces.

Some of them are:

1. Gravity
2. Magnetism
3. Electrostatics
4. Strong nuclear force
5. Weak nuclear force

1. Gravity : Gravitation or Gravity is a process by which bodies with a physical weight, however, small it is, are
attracted towards earth surface. They are attracted by a force which is proportional to their
weight.Gravitation is responsible for keeping all the planets in their respective orbit around the sun and is the
non contact force at its best.

The Universal law of gravitation can be stated as:

"Every particle in the universe attracts every other particle with a force that is directly proportional to the
product of their masses and inversely proportional to the Square of the distance between
them".Mathematically, it can be stated as:
F = $\frac{G m_{1}m_{2}}{r^{2}}$Where,
F = force of gravitation in Newton
G = gravitational constant with value 6.673 $\times$ 10-11m3 kg-1s-2
m1 = mass of object 1
m2 = mass of object 2

The direction of force is from the body acted upon towards the body applying it. The weight of the human
body is also a non contact force exerted by earth on human.

FIGURE : OBJECTS ATTRACTED TOWARDS EARTH

2. MAGNETISM : It is a property by virtue of which certain special substances called 'magnets'• exert a
special force on other magnets or substances made up of iron. This force is called magnetic force which is
a kind of non contact force as the materials just need to be in the vicinity of the magnet.
This is non contact because there is no physical contact between the materials. This force is due to the
magnetic field developed around the magnet. These magnets have two poles called South and North. Like
poles repel each other while unlike poles attract each other.Magnetic fields are non contact forces as they
push or pull objects without touching them. They exhibit these properties just on a few magnetic materials
not on all.

Figure : Depicting Magnetism

There are many kinds of magnetism like:

1. Diamagnetism
2. Ferromagnetism
3. Paramagnetism
4. Antiferromagnetism
5. Electromagnetism

3. Electrostatic Force: Electrostatics is all about attraction and repulsion of charges and is another type of
non contact force. Some materials have special properties of developing charge on their surface once they
are rubbed like amber. These materials then attract opposite charges and hence display the property of
electrostatics.
It is fully justified to be called non contact forces as the charges do not need to be in physical contact in
order to repel or attract.
 SHOWING ELECTROSTATICS AS NON CONTACT FORCES

4. Strong Nuclear Force: The force acting in the nucleus is called nuclear force as the name suggests. On a
larger level it is the force that binds protons and nucleons together, they form the nucleus. These are the
strongest of all the four fundamental forces.
They are also called non contact forces because they act without any physical contact between particles.
This force acts equally between two protons, between two neutrons and between proton and a neutron. The
range of this force is very small although it is the strongest of all.

5. Weak Nuclear Force: This is an uncommon force and hence appears in very few processes like beta
decay of a nucleus. This is responsible for the process of hydrogen decay in the stars.

Non Contact Force Examples

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There are various examples from our daily life depicting non contact forces, some of them are:

1. Apple falling down from the tree is the best and most popular example of non contact force viz. gravity.
2. Iron pins being attracted when in the vicinity of a magnet without any physical contact.
3. Repulsion force, when two magnets are close to each other is also an example of non contact force.
4. The charging of the hair and attraction of paper bits towards it.
5. Falling of rain drops on earth is also an example of non contact force .
6. Free fall of feather towards earth is by the virtue of gravity.
 7. There are many real life examples from electrostatics showing the attraction of small materials towards
objects.

Non contact force is present in our daily lives and can be experienced in many aspects. Electromagnetism is another
example of it. When electricity is passed through iron converting it into an electromagnet, it attracts particles and iron
towards it, thus, displaying properties of non contact force.