[Physics] Experiment which shows that Newton’s third law is not true for magnetic forces

conservation-lawselectromagnetismexperimental-physicsmomentumnewtonian-mechanics

I am just reading David Morins "Introduction to Classical Mechanics". He writes about Newtons third law the following:

It holds for forces of the “pushing” and “pulling” type, but it fails
for the magnetic force, for example. In that case, momentum is carried
off in the electromagnetic field (so the total momentum of the
particles and the field is conserved).

Some questions about this:

  • I can imagine that somehow (but it's not clear to me) the colinearity (opposide direction of the action and reaction) fails in the case of two currents because of the Biot-Savart law. However is it also possible that the action and reaction force doesn't have equal magnitudes? So which part of the law fails for magnetic forces?

  • Does the law already fails in magnetostatics? I guess not, but how to prove it?

  • This is my main question: Is there any experiment, ideally something which can be accomplished with high school lab equipment, which shows in a convincing way that Newton's third law doesn't hold for magnetic forces in general?

Best Answer

Let charge A be at the origin, moving to the right (along the positive x axis). Let charge B be at coordinates (1,0), moving in the positive y direction.

A's magnetic force on B vanishes, since by symmetry the magnetic field due to A is zero at B's position.

B's magnetic force on A doesn't vanish.

Does the law already fails in magnetostatics? I guess not, but how to prove it?

In magnetostatics there can't be any radiation. If there's no radiation, then mechanical momentum is the only form of momentum we have. If Newton's third law fails, then mechanical momentum isn't conserved. This would lead to a violation of conservation of momentum, which is impossible. So no, the third law can't fail in magnetostatics.

This is my main question: Is there any experiment, ideally something which can be accomplished with high school lab equipment, which shows in a convincing way that Newton's third law doesn't hold for magnetic forces in general?

It would have to be an experiment in which a large amount of momentum was carried away by radiation. Seems tough to me. Even if you build a very powerful and directional radio transmitter, the amount of momentum carried away is tiny in mechanical terms.