Postulate: EVERY field has its magnetic equivalent.
Very nicely, I should say that
MotoPayton is offering a very elegant discussion that makes an intellectual thought experiment, easy and predictable.
I have thought of the same thing, much more simply, for years, but never expanded on it much until now. Rather than wires, think of only two charged particles, rather than a wire.
Two electrons, fired off in parallel at near-relativistic speed, seem to repel each other slower than should be expected from their mutual repulsion in the electrical field. Two separate approaches thoroughly explain this phenomenon. One can choose either for satisfaction.
1) General relativity allows for the electrons' mutual repulsive affects to appear less robust, due to time dilatation. The point is that relativity can thoroughly explain the observation.
2) On the other hand, Maxwell's equations can also thoroughly explain the phenomenon, as the moving electrons each comprise a current, generating a magnetic field, which acts upon the other so as to show a contrary attractive force that lessens the electrical repulsive forces.
Of course, an observer moving along with the electrons sees no velocity, and only sees the simple electromagnetic repulsion.
Since each explanation is true and sound, the thought experiment simply shows the
interchangeability of "electrical" and "magnetic" effects in relativistic physics. They are well known to appear different only in certain circumstances due to the frame of reference. However, the usual frame of reference in which we do experimental physics in the laboratories of Earth, favor an apparent difference. Neither explanation is the true one, and the other somehow lesser.
However, it becomes quickly obvious that for ANY particle that moves in
any sort of field capable of producing a force, F=∇U, will show similarly apparent modulations of the force between the two particles. This decrease in action is also thoroughly explained by general relativity. ALL fields capable of producing force, whether known or unknown, recognized or unrecognized, will produce the relativistic effect.
It is only an accident of history that Maxwell's equations antedated Lorentz and Einstein, that we came up with the pure theory of magnetism, which can be considered not a fundamental thing in its own right, but rather a manifestation of electricity in motion.
The strong force will have a "strong-magnetism" and gravity will have "gravito-magnetism," simply because the time-dilatation and mass effects of general relativity can be expressed in the field curl terms of Maxwell's equations.
Yes, MotoPayton, you are right, and I offer you the gold medal for Armchair Physics for the summer. :)
