I think I am beginning to understand William Beaty's original question.
Let me state it in a way that makes sense to me, and then William can
tell me if I understand him correctly.
For the explanation of the problem, let's assume we are observers in
the lab frame.
(1) Let's take a very homogenous magnetic field, perhaps that between
the pole faces of an NMR magnet.
(2) Let's trap an electron (or other ion) in a cyclotron orbit inside
the magnet's gap. This is something that can be done experimentally.
People have trapped charges in cyclotron orbits for long times.
(3) Once the charge is trapped in it's orbit, lets begin rotating the
magnet about the same axis and in the same rotational direction as the
cyclotron orbit.
An intuitive view would be that the relative motion between the magnet
and charge has changed. In fact, if the magnet rotation could be
instantly brought to the same angular velocity as the charge's original
cyclotron orbit, we would say the relative motion between the magnet
and charge has ceased.
So the question is... in this scenario, when the magnet is spun as
described, what happens to the charge?
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D. Phone/voice-mail: 419-358-3270
Professor of Chemistry & Physics FAX: 419-358-3323
Chairman, Science Department E-Mail edmiston@bluffton.edu
Bluffton College
280 West College Avenue
Bluffton, OH 45817