Musings on Gravitational Mass and the elusive Magnetic Monopole. Ask yourself this: Does the Earth's gravity do work on a golfball moving in a circular orbit around the Earth? I don't think so.
Now consider an electron moving in circle in a plane perpendicular to a uniform magnetic field. The magnetic field also does no work on the electron. The similarity suggests gravity is a 3-dimensional version of this 2-d magnetic example. Suppose the Earth is a magnetic monopole so its gravitational field is the field of a monopole. Then gravitational mass is the monopolar expression of magnetism. Magnetic Monopoles have eluded us because we think they must be exotic. In fact they are rather mundane. Note: Maxwell's equations of EM only need to be tweaked slightly to allow for magnetic monopoles. (see reference below) Harry -------- from http://www.rare-earth-magnets.com/magnet_university/maxwells_equations.htm The Structure of the Magnetic Field del·B = 0 B is the magnetic flux (in units of tesla, T). Equivalent integral form: AB·dA = 0 dA is the area of a differential square on the surface A with an outward facing surface normal defining its direction. Note: like the electric field's integral form, this equation only works if the integral is done over a closed surface. This equation is related to the magnetic field's structure because it states that given any volume element, the net magnitude of the vector components that point outward from the surface must be equal to the net magnitude of the vector components that point inward. Structurally, this means that the magnetic field lines must be closed loops. Another way of putting it is that the field lines cannot originate from somewhere; attempting to follow the lines backwards to their source or forward to their terminus ultimately leads back to the starting position. This implies that there are no magnetic monopoles. If a monopole were to be discovered, this equation would need to be modified to read del·B = rm where rm would be the density of magnetic monopoles. -------
