"art" wrote
Antenna books say the pattern is a figure eight! How can that be?
When the energy removes itself from distributed capacitance
do the photon march along the antenna in an orderly fashion? or do
they rush out as if the movie in the capacitor is over?
_________

Your intuitive theories may not support this, Arthur, but haven't you
noticed that your linear, dipole antennas (whether "short" or 1/2-wave)
transmit and receive very poorly in the directions of their longitudinal
axis? In fact, radio direction finders make use of this proven reality of
radiation physics.

How do you explain this, if you believe that the radiation pattern/gain of a
dipole is not very low in those directions, as in the nulls of a figure 8,
and as easily measured for these antenna configurations on a good test
range?

Please post your supporting math(s).

RF