Comment by randomtoast
3 days ago
TLDR; It is short range primarily because the underlying fields (those of the W and Z bosons) are “stiff,” causing any disturbance to die off exponentially at distances much smaller than an atom’s diameter. In quantum language, that same stiffness manifests as the nonzero masses of the W and Z bosons, so their corresponding force does not effectively propagate over long distances—hence it appears “weak” and short-range.
No one answered my question, but I figured out a point on a tightly stretched rubber sheet or drumhead is better analogy than a spring, because the tighter the material, the more force required and the less propagation
So it’s like a stiff spring /strut vs a loose one? Doesn’t a loose suspension dampen and stiff propagate quicker though?