"In 1933 Enrico Fermi suggested that beta radioactivity, and the manner in which the neutron spontaneously decayed, could be described using a formalsm similar to that developed by Dirac for the electromagnetic force, but 10-10 times weaker. With its range of only about 1/1,000th the diameter of the nucleus, it could not play a role in binding the nucleus, but it could affect individual s. The fact that the metastable particles exhibited the same characteristic time of 10-10 second indicated that this weak force acted on many types of particles. ...a 'characteristic time' ...being the time for an interaction across a nucleus 3 fm in diameter; an event taking place in a shorter time [than 10-23 seconds for the strong force] has 'no meaning'. ...For electromagnetic interactions, the strength is 10-3 of the strong force, and so the characteristic time is longer (10-20 [seconds]); this is roughly the time for a photon to cross an atom."
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, The Big Bang: A View from the 21st Century (2003) p. 66.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Electromagnetism
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