Macroscopic bodies are composed of huge numbers of elementary particles, which means that the effects of the fundamental forces on macroscopic bodies are complicated by the collective interactions of these particles. As a result, it is often advantageous to construct new force laws to describe the interactions of macroscopic bodies, even though these "new" forces are actually manifestations of the fundamental forces.

With the sole exception of gravitation, all other forces studied in an introductory mechanics course are phenomenological forces.

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