repelling

Repelling is the act or tendency of pushing something away or resisting its approach. In physics and related fields, repulsion refers to a non-contact interaction that increases the distance between objects or fields. It is the opposite of attraction.

In electromagnetism, repulsion most commonly occurs between like electric charges or between like magnetic poles. Coulomb's law describes the force between point charges, which is repulsive when the charges have the same sign. Magnetic repulsion occurs between similar poles of magnets. By contrast, gravity produces an always-attractive force, so gravitational interaction does not include repulsion under ordinary conditions.

In materials science and chemistry, repulsive forces help stabilize systems and prevent aggregation. Electrostatic repulsion arising from surface charges can keep particles dispersed in a colloid. The balance between attractive van der Waals forces and repulsive electrostatic forces is described in DLVO theory and influences aggregation and stability of suspensions.

Repellents are substances or strategies designed to deter or discourage contact or approach. In pest control, chemical repellents make environments unattractive to pests, such as insect repellents containing active ingredients like DEET or plant-derived compounds. In ecology and behavior, avoidance or aversion can function as a repulsive response to stimuli.

In mathematics and dynamical systems, a repeller is a type of equilibrium from which nearby trajectories diverge over time, illustrating how repelling behavior can be analyzed in abstract spaces.

Overall, repelling describes forces or actions that push entities apart or deter engagement across physical, chemical, biological, and mathematical contexts.