Question

Could the Faraday's rotating wire experiment be explained without using Lorentz force?

Answer 1

read Faraday's rotating wire experiment which resulted in the invention of the homopolar motor. He was clever enough to think it that way and make the wire rotate around one of the poles of the cylindrical magnet after observing the behavior of magnetic field around a current carrying wire. This can be explained by applying the Lorentz force acting on the wire.

I was thinking if this could be explained without applying the Lorentz force acting on the current carrying wire but by explaining how the magnetic field around the current carrying wire tends to align itself with the magnetic field of the magnet. I was thinking that the "field lines" around the wire would tend to align itself with those of the magnet but would always fail to do so and keep on rotating around the magnet. I tried to draw a diagram-
The grey disc is the N-pole of the magnet with its magnetic field lines shown in blue (forgot to draw arrows). The yellow disc is the current carrying wire with the current flowing out of the screen and the field lines are shown in dotted circles around it.
I could not find the correct way in which the "field lines" around the wire would tend to align itself with those of the magnet and rotate the wire in anti-clockwise direction as given by applying the Lorentz force on the wire.
In other situations like a magnetic dipole in an external magnetic field this can be explained by the torque acting on the opposite poles of the dipole or the moment of the dipole aligning itself with the external magnetic field.
But here I do not find any opposite poles or magnetic moment to think in that way. Am I doing any mistake in thinking like this?