ABSTRACT
The wave shown in Figure 1.2 is simplified. As shown in Figure 1.3, the energy wave propagating through space has two components: electrical and magnetic. These components vibrate perpendicularly to each other. Often the wave is depicted in one dimension instead of two, which is perfectly acceptable in this context. In microscopy, our interest is with the electrical component, not the magnetic one. The direction of propagation is the direction the wave is moving in space; the direction of vibration is the up-and-down wave movement. When we discuss polarized light microscopy in Chapter 7, we will see that waves (beams) of energy can be split into parallel and perpendicular components, but this is not the same concept we are discussing here. Figure 1.3 depicts the dual electrical and magnetic properties of energy.
