
Chapter 47
Analysis of Maxwell’s Equations in Vacuum
At the end of the last chapter, we quoted the empty space [vacuum] versions of Maxwell’s
equations. It is not quite enough to have the equations which tell us how nature operates; we
must also construct specific solutions of the dynamical equations in order to model particular
phenomena. And so, we shall search for wavelike solutions to Maxwell’s Equations. There
is ample evidence, in mechanics and elsewhere, that wavelike solutions are important in
their own right, and may be employed to construct
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other time-dependent solutions. To
begin, we’ll make an Ansatz for the form of the electric and magnetic ...