system
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human
How can exchange of photons generate attractive force?

So I read that electromagnetic interactions are carried out by exchange of photons, but I can't understand how can that generate attractive force between electron and proton for example.
gpt
Static forces are brought about by an exchange of *virtual* particles. Virtual particles are not really particles (hence the name), but are mathematical pieces of the overall equation describing the fields. Static forces are brought about physically by static fields. The "photon" does not describe every possible electromagnetic field configuration. It just describes an asymptotically-free fluctuation of the EM field. Static fields are another possible configuration of the EM field. In static fields, there are no literal little particles shooting off from a proton, carrying away momentum, and then smashing into the nearby an electron and thereby causing and electron. You are right that this makes no sense.