Many everyday forces, such as the force the floor exerts on your feet, are due to the electromagnetic forces in matter that resist displacement of atoms from their equilibrium position in a material.

It is necessary to understand that electrical charge (positive/negative) and magnetism (north/south) are different aspects of the same force -- electomagnetism. Oppositely charged objects, such as a proton and an electron, attract one another, while particles with the same charge repel each other.

The carrier particle of the electromagnetic force is the photon (). Depending on their energy, they are called gamma rays, light, microwaves, radio waves, etc.