Magnetism was once thought to be distinct from electricity, until Maxwell’s equations were found to describe both, and experiments showed that they were connected.
A static charge isn’t magnetic, but if it moves, a magnetic field appears around it. In Figure 5.12, passing a current I through the wire produces a magnetic field B, so wrapping a wire around a nail and passing a current through it makes it a magnet, and the effect stops when the current does! Electricity can then cause magnetism and the reverse is also true, as spinning a magnet with a wire wrapped around it induces a current in the wire.
Electric cars are then possible because in physics, magnetism and electricity are considered to be one field:
“We will see that magnetism and electricity are not independent things – that they should always be taken as one complete electromagnetic field.” (Feynman et al., 1977).
Is magnetism then just charge in another guise (Note 1)? It would seem not because:
1. Static charges and magnets don’t interact.
2. The magnetic field is at right angles to the electric field.
3. Gauss’s law doesn’t apply to magnetism, which reduces more like an inverse cube.
4. Dividing a charged body gives positive and negative charges but dividing a magnet gives two more magnets, both with a north and south pole.
Magnetism behaves quite differently from charge, so how one field creates both is unclear. The quantum waves of light are also described as electrical and magnetic waves vibrating at right angles. They are said to cause each other, in a self-sustaining loop, which isn’t possible.
The equations of physics explain electricity and magnetism separately, but not how they can be one field, just as understanding horses and birds doesn’t explain how a winged horse is possible. Current physics has no credible theory that explains why electro-magnetism has two different effects, that occur in different directions, and weaken differently.
The standard model claims that charges repel when virtual photons push them apart, but the same photons conveniently pull together charges that attract, and also make magnetism work differently. The scientific requirements of theory falsifiability and productivity are dismissed as philosophical niceties that physicists with equations don’t need, but if only equations matter, fairies with magic photon wands would explain electro-magnetism just as well!
In this model, science and logic still matter, so the same quantum field that causes gravity must also explain electricity and magnetism, with no miracles allowed.
Note 1. The logic is that a moving electron’s length is foreshortened by special relativity giving more negative electrons than positive protons in a given length of wire, so parallel wires with opposite currents attract, but this could be correlation not causation