The Elusive Electric Field

When reading standard textbook literature on electricity and magnetism, it is usually implied that the electric field plays an important role in inducing magnetism into the environment, and that a changing magnetic field induces an electric field into copper wires and other conductors.

However, the explanation I arrived at for both the induction of magnetism by charges in motion, and the induction of electricity into wires, bypassed entirely the need for an electric field.

Magnetism was induced into the environment through physical contact between charged particles in motion and low energy photons. Physical contact set photons spinning around the charged particles. The photons oriented their axis of spin perpendicular to the direction of the current, and at a spin rate proportional to the speed of the charged particles. The faster charged particles move, the greater the spin rate of photons.

The spinning photons is what we experience as magnetism.

Conversely, in the presence of a magnetic field, electricity can be induced into a copper wire by moving the wire in such a way that it cuts through the array of spinning photons. The direct physical contact between spinning photons and electrons in the wire, set the electrons moving.

Induction of an electric current into a wire

Nowhere in these explanations does the electric field appear as a physical entity. The electric field is essentially a static thing. It does not provide any mechanism to convert electricity to magnetism or visa versa.

Where the electric field comes into this is only in situations where charged objects are acting on other charged objects. We have the situation of charged balloons repelling each other, charged capacitor plates attracting each other, and electrons in copper wires pushing on each other like charged balloons.

The standard interpretation when it comes to the role of electric fields in electromagnetic conversions is a classic example of confusing the effect for the cause. The electric field is not a contributor to electromagnetic induction. It is merely tagging along with the charged particles that interact directly with low energy photons.