Tom Donaly wrote:
Has it ever occurred to you, Cecil, that a half wave dipole with
equal current and voltage waves traveling in opposite directions
wouldn't accept power?

It is an approximation, Tom, like a lossless line. For real world
dipoles, the voltage and current decay by about 10% between the
forward wave and the arrival of the reflected wave. Kraus and
Terman both use that approximation in their examples.

We aren't saying anything about the traveling wave part of the
waves. The discussion is about the standing wave portion of
the wave which, by definition, requires equal magnitudes.
--
73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp