It's not illusory or an "artifact", since you can have electromagnetic field configurations that cannot be reduced to simple electrostatics (i.e., electric field but zero magnetic field) by picking an appropriate frame.
Special relativity helps to explain why, even if you have a configuration that is purely electrostatic in one frame, it won't be purely electrostatic in other frames. But that's not the same as saying that all electromagnetic field configurations are that way. They aren't.
Comments
I thought we had long since established that magnetism is illusory, an artifact of special relativity.
But it seems like a thin film of this stuff would be a good thing to skim an electron beam over, if you wanted some extremely short-waved photons.
It's not illusory or an "artifact", since you can have electromagnetic field configurations that cannot be reduced to simple electrostatics (i.e., electric field but zero magnetic field) by picking an appropriate frame.
Special relativity helps to explain why, even if you have a configuration that is purely electrostatic in one frame, it won't be purely electrostatic in other frames. But that's not the same as saying that all electromagnetic field configurations are that way. They aren't.
The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces.
It cannot be reduced.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamental_interaction
I think GP alluded to
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duality_(electricity_and_mag...
The magnetic field may be an artifact of special relativity. Magnetic materials are not relativistic artifacts.
Why isn't electricity an illusory artifact of relativistic magnetism?