The Role of Forces in Matter

There's two different ways to think about forces. One is in terms of fields, like each electron creates an electric field that's all around it. Or you could also think about it in terms of particles. So when electrons push on other electrons, they're exchanging particles. Either way, though, that space is not empty. Between the electron and the nucleus is either a vast electric field or photons. And this really does contribute to like the matter that matters.