Step 1: Place the nuclear force among the fundamental forces. Nature has four basic interactions. In increasing strength at nuclear scale they rank as gravitational \(<\) weak \(<\) electromagnetic \(<\) strong (nuclear). So the nuclear force sits at the top of this list at distances of a few femtometres.
Step 2: List its defining properties.
(a) It is the strongest known force, roughly \(100\times\) the electric force and \(\sim 10^{38}\times\) the gravitational force between two protons in contact.
(b) It has an extremely short range, dying out beyond \(\sim 2\)–\(3\) fm, so far-apart nucleons feel nothing.
(c) It is charge independent: n-n, n-p and p-p (nuclear part) bonds are identical.
(d) It shows a repulsive hard core below \(\sim 0.7\) fm and attraction above it, which fixes the nucleon spacing.
(e) It saturates, binding only nearest neighbours, giving a nearly constant binding energy per nucleon (\(\sim 8\) MeV).
(f) It is spin dependent and non-central.
Step 3: Contrast with gravity and electricity. Both gravity and the electric (Coulomb) force are long-range inverse-square forces. Gravity is always attractive and set by mass; the Coulomb force depends on charge sign and can attract or repel. The nuclear force differs on every count: it is far stronger, vanishes beyond a few fm, does not care about charge, and can switch between attraction and a repulsive core.
\[\boxed{\text{Strong, short-ranged, charge-independent, saturating force} \ne \text{gravity or Coulomb force}}\]