Do electric charges and magnets distort space, in the way that a source of gravity does?
Electric charges and magnets do indeed “distort space,” but this happens on a couple of levels. First, a word of background. According to the current best theory of gravitation, which is contained in Albert Einstein’s famous general theory of relativity, a gravitational field represents a curvature of space-time, rather than a distortion of it. Anything that carries energy, momentum and stresses is a source of a gravitational field, that is, a curvature of space-time. Electric charges and magnets are manifestations of certain types of matter, most particularly electrons. Since matter carries energy (via Einstein’s famous relation that energy is mass times the speed of light squared), such objects will have a gravitational field and so they will distort space-time. So one way in which a charge or a magnet will distort space-time is by virtue of its matter. That answer may not sound too impressive, but there is more. . . . You see, electromagnetic fields themselves carry energy (and mome
