Why magnetism was logically impossible before Einstein's theory of relativity

Space · Published 31 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: If you use the standard laws of electromagnetism alongside traditional physics, magnetism becomes a logical impossibility. It only makes sense when you account for how space and time behave at high speeds. Einstein didn't just discover a new equation; he fixed a fundamental crack in our understanding of reality.

Before 1905, the prevailing view of physics relied on Galilean relativity and the concept of the 'ether.' Under these rules, electromagnetism suffered from a glaring asymmetry. For example, if you have a magnet moving past a conductor, it generates an electric current. However, in the old framework, if you kept the magnet still and moved the conductor instead, the physics didn't align correctly with the first scenario. The theory essentially broke depending on which object was 'moving.'

Albert Einstein addressed this in his 1905 paper, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies." He argued that because electricity and magnetism are two sides of the same coin, the outcome must be identical regardless of whether the magnet or the conductor is in motion. By rejecting the ether and postulating uniform physical laws across all inertial reference frames, he reconciled these descriptions. His work showed that the generated current depends solely on relative motion.

This principle of conservation remains visible today through the Einstein-de Haas effect. In experiments involving iron bars, flipping a magnetic field causes the bar to physically rotate. This happens because magnetism comes from electron spin—a quantum property where electrons act like tiny spinning balls of charge. When an external field reverses these spins, their net angular momentum falls to zero; because angular momentum must be conserved, that energy is converted into mechanical rotation.

Modern researchers at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have recently captured this in real-time using X-ray lasers. During a timeframe of millionths of a billionth of a second, researchers witnessed surface atoms spinning while demagnetisation occurred. This confirms that the transfer of angular momentum from the atomic scale to mechanical motion is a fundamental law of our universe.

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