[RTCPhysics (OP)]

The force fields of electrostatics and magnetics play a major role in our conceptual understanding of Physics. The target of this article is to outline their different characteristics in order to reach a conclusion upon whether they are ‘compatible’ forces or ‘competitive’ forces for the roles they take in Physics theory.

The ‘traditional concept’ of electrostatics, allocates each charged particle with a positive or negative source of energy. There is no limit to the number of lines of force generated by a single charge, but they are restricted to ‘straight lines’ that head for infinity in all directions, albeit with their magnitude falling off as the square of the distance from the location of the charged particle.

The magnitude of the electrostatic charge on a particle never varies, irrespective of the number of interactions it has with other particles within its vicinity. This capability requires that the charge associated with each particle is a source of ‘perpetual energy’ in order to continually maintain its force field in all directions over time.

Both these traits of ‘perpetually energised’ field lines and ‘infinite reach’ are traditionally viewed as being physical impossibilities.

To counteract these two ‘fault lines’ of the traditional theory, there is an alternative model of the electrostatic field put forward, which is based upon the concept of an ‘electrostatic continuum’.
 
However, until there is a physical device that can detect electrostatic lines of force acting between charged particles over short and long distances, in the manner that a compass follows magnetic lines of force, then the presence of an electrostatic continuum is in doubt over its reality and thus its viability as a theory to plausibly explain the mechanics of an electrostatic field.

The ‘traditional concept’ of magnetism as having 'north' and 'south' poles, which attract and repel one another in a like manner to positive and negative electrostatic charges, overlooks a key characteristic of magnetism.

When the magnetic fields of two particles (or two bar magnets), meet with their field lines circling in contrary directions, clockwise and anti-clockwise, the fields do not actually ‘repel’, but ‘deflect’ around each other. This causes one of the two particles (or bar magnets) to rotate itself through 180 degrees, bringing their magnetic fields into an attracting rather than a repelling mode. The relevance of this, is that magnetic attraction and magnetic deflection always lead to the creation of a ‘joint’ magnetic field.

An example of ‘magnetic deflection’ occurs with the ‘pairing’ of electrons in their orbital energy band around the atom's nucleus. The entry of a second electron into the 1s orbital energy band, whose magnetic field ring is circulating in the same direction as the resident electron, that is, with their north-south axes in parallel creating repulsion, causes the incoming electron to flip or rotate itself around, bringing their circular magnetic field rings into an attracting mode, with their north-south axes now anti-parallel.

This creates a joint magnetic field, with the two electrons in different states, which we call ‘spin up’ and ‘spin down’. Without magnetic attraction, the negative electrostatic charges of the two electrons would simply repel them apart, overriding the attractive force of the more distantly located protons.
 
By contrast, when two oppositely charged electrostatic particles attract each other together, they ‘neutralise’ their electrostatic fields. An illustration of this occurs within the neutron, where the positively charged proton and the negatively charged electron reside in tandem, neutralising each other’s charge.

But there are other defining characteristics that differ between electrostatic and magnetic fields.

Whereas the electrostatic field is ‘infinite’ in size, a magnetic field is ‘finite’ in size. Whereas the electric charge upon an electron and a proton have exactly the same magnitude, the magnetic field strength of the proton and the electron have different magnitudes. Whereas the field lines of electric charges travel in straight lines, magnetic field lines rotate in loops.

These differing behavioural characteristics of electrostatic and magnetic fields raises question marks over the traditional concept of electric and magnetic field compatibility.

But there is another characteristic where they differ, which is the ‘penetrability’ of their field lines within matter. The electrostatic fields of the ‘negatively charged’ electrons resident in neighbouring atoms, are all attracted together by the electrostatic fields of the ‘positively charged’ protons located within their separate nuclei. This attraction is necessary for the creation of solid, liquid and gas molecules, but implies that the electric fields of particles are unable to penetrate any distance through matter without their field lines being linked to others.

If ‘electric currents’ in wires and ‘lightning strikes’ in air have sprung into your mind, then you are observing the transfer of kinetic energy through matter, which is not due to the penetration of an electrostatic field from a store of charged particles, but is the result of the build-up, release and transfer of kinetic energy via electron conduits in the conducting medium of wire or through electron ‘pair splitting’ in the non-conducting medium of air.

Magnetic fields, on the other hand, are able to penetrate through all matter, restricted only by the finite ‘reach’ of their outer magnetic field lines. A practical example of this is the hand held magnetic detectors, whose field can extend some feet into the earth’s surface before returning to the detector. There is no equivalent equipment that uses electrostatics to penetrate matter.

But perhaps a more impressive example of magnetic penetrability is the magnetic field of the earth, which starts from its centre, penetrates through 4000 miles of matter to reach the atmosphere, where its outer and ‘traceable’ magnetic lines, loop back towards the earth’s surface, returning to their generating source at the earth’s centre.

These fundamental differences in the characteristic behaviour of electrostatic and magnetic fields, gives rise to the logical, but perhaps controversial view, that there is no possible way for these two diverse fields to act in concert to create an ‘electromagnetic’ field.  This implies that the concept of the ‘electromagnetic’ photon, as put forward by Maxwell, is not a viable physical model.

This switch of perception does not affect the body of knowledge that we have of atoms and molecules, but it does affect the nomenclature that we use, in this case, by eliminating the descriptive adjective of ‘electromagnetic’ from the photon.

But the main conclusion is that electrostatics and magnetics are ‘competitive’ forces for the roles that they play in Physics Theory.