<Tr> <Td> Strength at the scale of quarks: </Td> <Td> 6959100000000000000 ♠ 10 (predicted) </Td> <Td> 6996100000000000000 ♠ 10 </Td> <Td> </Td> <Td> 60 </Td> <Td> Not applicable to quarks </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> Strength at the scale of protons / neutrons: </Td> <Td> 6964100000000000000 ♠ 10 (predicted) </Td> <Td> 6993100000000000000 ♠ 10 </Td> <Td> </Td> <Td> Not applicable to hadrons </Td> <Td> 20 </Td> </Tr> <P> In his 1687 theory, Isaac Newton postulated space as an infinite and unalterable physical structure existing before, within, and around all objects while their states and relations unfold at a constant pace everywhere, thus absolute space and time . Inferring that all objects bearing mass approach at a constant rate, but collide by impact proportional to their masses, Newton inferred that matter exhibits an attractive force . His law of universal gravitation mathematically stated it to span the entire universe instantly (despite absolute time), or, if not actually a force, to be instant interaction among all objects (despite absolute space .) As conventionally interpreted, Newton's theory of motion modelled a central force without a communicating medium . Thus Newton's theory violated the first principle of mechanical philosophy, as stated by Descartes, No action at a distance . Conversely, during the 1820s, when explaining magnetism, Michael Faraday inferred a field filling space and transmitting that force . Faraday conjectured that ultimately, all forces unified into one . </P> <P> In the early 1870s, James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism as effects of an electromagnetic field whose third consequence was light, travelling at constant speed in a vacuum . The electromagnetic field theory contradicted predictions of Newton's theory of motion, unless physical states of the luminiferous aether--presumed to fill all space whether within matter or in a vacuum and to manifest the electromagnetic field--aligned all phenomena and thereby held valid the Newtonian principle relativity or invariance . </P>

What force causes objects in space to be grouped in different ways