For those looking for a more satisfying answer implied by the simple title here goes. The “αs” number quoted is a dimensionless unit so let’s pick a distance of 1 femtometer so that we can use newtons. The strong force between two gluons is about 150,000N at this distance, compared to 230N for electromagnetism. Electromagnetism weakens with the square of the distance and the strong force does a similar thing up to a point and then it becomes constant. At about 1.1 - 1.5 fm it “snaps”. The energy in the tension is enough to create another pair of gluons. To put it in perspective, the width of a proton is 0.85 fm. It’s all waves down there so my layman view is probably oversimplified.
For those looking for a more satisfying answer implied by the simple title here goes. The “αs” number quoted is a dimensionless unit so let’s pick a distance of 1 femtometer so that we can use newtons. The strong force between two gluons is about 150,000N at this distance, compared to 230N for electromagnetism. Electromagnetism weakens with the square of the distance and the strong force does a similar thing up to a point and then it becomes constant. At about 1.1 - 1.5 fm it “snaps”. The energy in the tension is enough to create another pair of gluons. To put it in perspective, the width of a proton is 0.85 fm. It’s all waves down there so my layman view is probably oversimplified.