system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why don't magnets repelling each other glow?

Allow me to explain my reasoning:

1. Light is made of photons.
2. Photons are the force carrying particles of the EM field.
3. Magnets repel each other via the EM force.

I therefore assume that they repel each other through the use of photons, and we should therefore see them glow. 

Why am I wrong?
gpt
Stationary magnets (or close to stationary magnets) repel each other through an exchange of virtual photons, not real photons. Virtual particles are not stable, quantized particles that can radiate away into space and into your eye. Virtual particles are simply one way to describe EM field configurations that are not stable, self-propagating fluctuations (i.e. real photons). The word "virtual" is unfortunate because stationary magnetic fields are real enough, they are just not really stable particles that can radiate away and take on an independent existence. Magnets don't glow visible light because visible light consists of visible-frequency real photons, and stationary magnetic fields consists of virtual photons.

Although human eyes are not sensitive to stationary magnetic fields, there are machines and other creatures that are. To a homing pigeon, a magnet does "glow" in some sense of the word since they are able to detect magnetic fields (aka virtual photons). A human can indirectly "see" the virtual photons that constitute a magnetic field using a small compass.

Also, if you wave a permanent magnet about, the magnetic field is no longer stationary, and you create real photons in addition to the virtual photons. However, these real photons are very low frequency - far too low to see with your eye. But you could pick it up with a suitable radio antenna.