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I suspect I’m using a naive macro model and inaccurate terminology whereas you’re using a micro model and accurate terminology.

Is there even such a thing as magnetic force? Reading up a bit, it only talks about magnetic fields.

My point is that whether a force does work doesn’t depend on what the force is. It makes no more sense to say that magnetic forces do no work than it does to say that gravitational forces do no work.

But that’s true of gravitational forces too, otherwise satellites wouldn’t have constant speed. It’s silly and misleading to say that magnetic forces do no work. If I turn an electromagnet on next to a spoon, the spoon will move and the magnetic force did some work.

It’s the magnets, doing work!