system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What exactly is a gluon?

I know that they're smaller than protons and act as an adhesive that binds quarks but besides that I do not know much regarding how they act under certain conditions?
gpt
A gluon is essentially the strong force analogue of a photon.

Photons carry and transmit the electromagnetic force, and are generated by moving electric charge of which there are two types: positive and negative.

Gluons carry and transmit the strong force, except that it has six "color charges": red, green, blue, antired, antigreen, and antiblue. The names don't mean anything, its just a way to keep track of quantum variables. 

The rule with the electromagnetic force is opposite charges attract and like charges repel, causing a tendency to form neutral bulk material.

Similarly, the strong force has a tendency to be "white" that is either all three colors(or anticolors) together in a triple, or a color-anticolor pair. 

However, unlike photons, gluons have mass, and this makes them unable to travel long distances quickly, so although the strong force is MUCH stronger than electromagnetism, it is only effective over extremely short distances--on the order of an atomic nucleus or smaller.