It is true that a changing magnetic field induces a current in a circuit.  Why is it that only a changing magnetic field does this?  Is it possible that a static magnetic field can do the same if done properly?  Afterall, typically anything that occurs due to electricity can also be used to create electricity.  For example, light can be created by electricity and can be converted to electricity.  The same holds true for mechanical motion. 

It is plain that electricity can be used to create a static magnetic field--not constantly switching poles.  Any plain old electromagnet will do this. 

Perhaps a static magnetic field does create electricity in a circuit--maybe we just don't know how to take advantage of it yet.  What if a circuit was created that used multiple diodes to only permit electical flow one way and blocked electrons from flowing the other way so that when the magnet created excess electrons in it's portion of the ciruit, the electrons would flow(dc) in only one permitted way then the isolated portion of the circuit that was influenced by the magnet would have a dearth of electrons/positive charge causing electrons to be pulled from outside of the first blocking diode  and pushed through the other diode and so on continuing the cycle.

These are all excellent questions.   I do not know the answers.  I think that we must only construct the theory from the experiment, so we must continue to do experiments.


"Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe. This idea is not novel. Men have been led to it long ago by instinct or reason; it has been expressed in many ways, and in many places, in the history of old and new. We find it in the delightful myth of Antheus, who derives power from the earth; we find it among the subtle speculations of one of your splendid mathematicians and in many hints and statements of thinkers of the present time. Throughout space there is energy. Is this energy static or kinetic! If static our hopes are in vain; if kinetic ? and this we know it is, for certain ? then it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature."
-Nikola Tesla

However, my understanding is this:  a magnetic field has only the illusion of being static.  Since it is actually a dipole, the EM energy which it pours out is actually coming from the broken symmetry of QED (the virtual particle flux of the active vacuum).  This is basically along the same lines as Bearden, and even mainstream physics.  The trick is can we harness this energy?

Now let me specifically answer your questions if I can:

"Why is it that only a changing magnetic field does [induction of EMF]?"
I don't know if this premise is true.  Perhaps only a changing magnetic field induces something we are able to -measure-.

"Perhaps a static magnetic field does create electricity in a circuit--maybe we just don't know how to take advantage of it yet"
I think this is closer to the truth.

"Can someone please respond to clear this up for me?  You can even call me an idiot if you like. "
Quantum electrodynamics are only beginning to really understand magnetics.  There are college graduate courses in this that are still catching up with experiments.  I recently went through a course listing and was astounded by the phenomenon now under investigation in conventional academia.  You are not an idiot for asking this.    The only idiots are the ones who do not ask questions.


"The led will keep flashing and emitting photons until all the excess electrons from the battery have been used up to. "
Only (in conventional theory) if the circuit is at absolute zero and there is no friction.

"My problem is this:  if a changing magnetic field only knocks loose free electrons, eventually the supply in the copper wire should give out and not allow any more photons to be produced regardless of the changing magnetic field."
Hah! This is a great question.  I don't know the answer.  I suspect the conventional idea is that the electrons simply move around the closed current loop circuit and there is no net change in total electrons present.  You simply have progressively killed your source potential (battery)  through the time domain.



"Could it not be true somehow that this magnetic field is actually converting to electrons, the same way photoelectric semiconductors convert sunlight?"
Yes in a way this is correct.  But there is no conversion, the flux comes from nothing.  This is what we mean by broken symmetry.  Real flux comes from nothing.   Magnetism and electricity are unified by the Maxwell-Heaviside equations.  Once you put the Maxwell-Heaviside equations with photons and special relativity you get Quantum Electrodynamics.  So yet, there is some serious symmetry here in that there are very strong analogies between E-field and B-fields, as they are linked mathemetically.   But there is also broken symmetry at the core, so in this sense the true source of the flux in a magnetic is a bit of a mystery. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell's_equations

The magnetic field equations can be derived from consideration of the transformation of the electric field equations under relativistic transformations at low velocities, and the same may be done with the electric field equations. Einstein motivated the special theory by noting that a description of a conductor moving with respect to a magnet must generate a consistent set of fields irrespective of whether the force is calculated in the rest frame of the magnet or that of the conductor.[3]

In relativity, the equations are written in an even more compact, "manifestly covariant" form, in terms of the rank-2 antisymmetric field-strength 4-tensor that unifies the electric and magnetic fields into a single object:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/2/4/4/2448f80f927b9ca11959f1cf9537fca6.png)

Kaluza and Klein showed in the 1920s that Maxwell's equations can be derived by extending general relativity into five dimensions. This strategy of using higher dimensions to unify different forces is an active area of research in particle physics.

Perhaps this is not the case.  If the circuit is actually closed, meaning that only a connection to the generator, the led and to the other end of the generator then the only electrons actually available are in the wire.  Given that matter can never be created or destroyed and light, according to Einstein and Netwon, is composed of actual particles called photons which are emitted from the led, it stands to reason that if there were no conversion from magnetic field to electron, then eventually the supply of electrons would give out since the photons are continually emitting. 

So, to sum up, the photons(particles of matter) are emitting from the led.  They cannot be created from nothing, so the electrons must somehow convert to photons(even if this is not a one to one relationship).  This means that the supply of electrons should be used up if no new electrons are created in the wire.  This does not happen.  Therefore, somehow, new electrons are being put into the wire.  Perhaps they are converted from the magnetic field somehow.  Perhaps the magnetic field is not a mere "property" but something else entirely.  I don't know.  I can only say that I do believe that matter can not be created or destroyed only converted so there has to be some kind of conversion going on in the wire.