N9NEO wrote:
I remember them telling me in school - GO BADGERS! - that in order to
have a field that was not static there had to be both H and E
components. Is it possible to have a field in the MHz range that only
has one component? either B or E? I don't think so.

The time change of E or B produces a perpendicular B or E, which is
what gives a wave equation. I think Maxwell intuited that as a
``displacement current'' necesssary to account for the circuit
completion in charging a capacitor. Anyway it turns it into a wave
equation, which I think he also noticed.

Think dE/dt=-B and dB/dt=E and notice that cos(t) and sin(t) are a
solution.

The actual equations have a curl to turn it into something involving
space as well.

If it's changing, it propagates.
--
Ron Hardin


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.